The 1972 ERA, which abortion advocates say would place a right to abortion in the Constitution, had a ratification deadline that expired 42 years ago. House Joint Resolution 17 claims to retroactively remove the deadline from the text of the amendment. Because Nevada, Illinois, and Virginia all made unconstitutional votes to ratify the dead amendment in recent years, pro-abortion politicians claim that this measure would make the ERA part of the Constitution.
This process ignores states whose legislatures hold different positions than the politicians who voted to ratify the amendment decades ago, and it also ignores clear rules regarding the passage of constitutional amendments in the US House and Senate.
“This was ERA’s poorest showing in the House in 50 years,” said Douglas D. Johnson, senior policy advisor to the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), and director of its ERA Project. “Only 52 percent of voting House members supported ERA today, compared to 94% in 1971, and 56% in 2020. Today’s tally was 62 votes below the two-thirds margin that the Constitution requires to perform grown-up constitutional amending, as opposed to today’s cheap political theater.”
House Joint Resolution 17 can only be blocked at this point by pro-life politicians filibustering in the Senate.
