While there will likely be further court battles of the Equal Rights Amendment, the Department of Justice dealt a major blow to advocates of ratification, many of who are radically pro-abortion, when it advised the Archivist of the United States that the deadline had passed.

Writing in a legal opinion from the Office of Legal Counsel, an executive office branch, Steven Engel clarified that the ERA is indeed done for, until the entire ratification process is started over again. Engel wrote, “Congress has constitutional authority to impose a deadline for ratifying a proposed constitutional amendment. It exercised this authority when proposing the Equal Rights Amendment and, because three-fourths of the state legislatures did not ratify before the deadline that Congress imposed, the Equal Rights Amendment has failed of adoption and is no longer pending before the States. Accordingly, even if one or more state legislatures were to ratify the proposed amendment, it would not become part of the Constitution, and the Archivist could not certify its adoption under 1 U.S.C. § 106b.Congress may not revive a proposed amendment after a deadline for its ratification has expired. Should Congress wish to propose the amendment anew, it may do so through the same procedures required to propose an amendment in the first instance, consistent with Article V of the Constitution.” You can read the full opinion here.

Students for Life said in a statement today, “Finally, we are hearing reason on this bad idea, now 100 years old, to force abortion into the Constitution, even as Roe v. Wade is falling apart,” said Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins. “Women did not have the kind of legal protections that exist today when this idea was first proposed; but times and the law has changed.

There are several lawsuits pending over the ERA. You can read about the anti-ERA lawsuit here and the pro-ERA lawsuit here. The DOJ opinion helps the pro-life cause, as the ERA is actually all about legalizing abortion up until the moment of birth, enshrining Roe v. Wade, and forcing taxpayer funding of abortions.

You can read more at rejectera.org.

Today, Stephanie Stone and Students for Life Action joined a coalition of pro-life groups in Richmond, Virginia to speak out against the ERA. Watch below:

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