The ERA & Reproductive Rights

I’m a member of a Facebook group called ERA, about the Equal Rights Amendment. The group’s Chathead discussions bombard my smartphone. I’m

The Ms. Magazine podcast On the Issues with Michele Goodwin (as seen on Castbox)

I’m glad this isn’t typical of Facebook groups, and I’m not sure why people don’t just post in the group instead of using the Group’s direct messages. Yesterday I had a bit of a jolt in those messages, because some clueless member of the group went on a bizarre rant, claiming that we need to stop focusing on abortion and stop talking about abortion — in short, this person sounded like a foot soldier for the patriarchy, not someone who’s in favor of the one-hundred-year-old Equal Rights Amendment.

In a real democracy with a modern constitution, the rights of women and marginalized genders would be covered by the constitution. The point of the Equal Rights Amendment, which Alice Paul wrote in 1923, is to make basic rights of women and marginalized genders part of the Constitution. Naturally bodily autonomy, such as reproductive rights and gender affirming care, are a significant part of basic rights. If your government is attempting to force people with uteruses to have unwanted children, that’s a fascist form of patriarchy.

Sure, creating more laws isn’t the same thing as… bringing up children to respect girls and women and not be misogynists. It’s not the same as bringing up children to respect LGBTQIA+…