According to many pundits, the ERA could be interpreted to create a constitutional right to abortion. This would stand even if the reasoning behind Roe v. Wade was overturned.
The ERA expired in 1979 when three-fourths of the states did not ratify the amendment before the expiration date outlined in its language. Despite this, the states of Nevada, Illinois, and Virginia all voted to ratify the amendment after the deadline. Now, even though federal judges have ruled that the ERA's ratification deadline still applies, pro-ERA politicians are pressuring the Biden administration to enforce the ERA as though it is a part of the Constitution.
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), the chairwoman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, sent letters to President Biden and the Archivist of the United States urging them to “to certify and publish ERA [as part of the Constitution] without further delay.”
“Congresswoman Maloney’s demands simply ignore the holdings of federal Judge Rudolph Contreras, appointed by President Obama, who in March 2021 ruled that the ERA ratification deadline was effective, that it would have been ‘absurd’ for the Archivist to ignore the deadline, and that the ERA-related legislative actions by Nevada, Illinois, and Virginia came too late to count,” said Douglas Johnson, director of the National Right to Life Committee's ERA Project.
Judge Contreras’ ruling is now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
