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| | :SECTION 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification. | | :SECTION 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification. |
| − | ==Possible impact== | + | ==Impact on abortion and other issues== |
| − | The purpose of the ERA was to prohibit many legal distinctions between men and women, and boys and girls. An all-male draft or male-only combat regiments would presumably have become illegal.<ref>Anti-ERA Phyllis Schlafly quote</ref> But equal representation of boys and girls on sports teams, and the termination of all-boys or all-girls sports teams, would probably not have been required, since the courts usually treat some gender distinctions as a ''bona fida operating qualification'' for which discrimination is allowed. | + | |
| | + | Multiple state courts, interpreting their state ERAs, have held that ERA requires taxpayer-funded abortion. The New Mexico Supreme Court, for example, held that: |
| | + | {{we conclude that classifications based on the unique ability of women to become pregnant and bear children are not exempt from a searching judicial inquiry under the Equal Rights Amendment to Article II, Section 18 of the New Mexico Constitution. New Mexico's state constitution requires the State to provide a compelling justification for using such classifications to the disadvantage of the persons they classify. ... Equal Rights Amendment to Article II, Section 18 of the New Mexico Constitution [requires taxpayer-funded abortion under the state Medicaid program].}} |
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| | + | ''N.M. Right to Choose/Naral, Abortion & Reprod. Health Servs., Planned Parenthood of the Rio Grande v. Johnson'', 1999-NMSC-00 ¶¶ 43, 61, 43126 N.M. 788, 802, 806, 975 P.2d 841, 855, 859 (Nov. 25, 1998). |
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| | + | The purpose of the ERA was to prohibit many legal distinctions between men and women, and boys and girls. An all-male draft or male-only combat regiments would presumably have become illegal.<ref>Anti-ERA Phyllis Schlafly quote</ref> But equal representation of boys and girls on sports teams, and the termination of all-boys or all-girls sports teams, could have been required by [[judicial supremacy]]. |
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| | Thirty-five out of the required 38 states ratified the amendment, but opposition led by [[Phyllis Schlafly]] ultimately defeated it.<ref>Testimony in 2007 by Phyllis Schlafly against the Equal Rights Amendment is [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7iEL54jY9Q here].</ref> Congress then extended the deadline to 1982 in legislation that was later invalidated, though no other states ratified the amendment in the additional three years. Several states rescinded their prior ratification of the amendment. | | Thirty-five out of the required 38 states ratified the amendment, but opposition led by [[Phyllis Schlafly]] ultimately defeated it.<ref>Testimony in 2007 by Phyllis Schlafly against the Equal Rights Amendment is [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7iEL54jY9Q here].</ref> Congress then extended the deadline to 1982 in legislation that was later invalidated, though no other states ratified the amendment in the additional three years. Several states rescinded their prior ratification of the amendment. |