22222222ERA Coalition Statement Ahead of President Biden’s State of the Union Address

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February, 28, 2022
Contact: cwest@eracoalition.org

Washington, DC –– Ahead of President Biden’s State of the Union Address, ERA Coalition / Fund for Women’s Equality President and CEO Carol Jenkins released the following statement:

“As President Biden prepares his State of the Union address, we urge him to clearly and forcefully call on the Department of Justice to clear the way for the U.S. Archivist to publish the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution. The ERA is now in effect across the country. This 28th Amendment must be recognized by inclusion in the document that dictates our rights.”

“We urge the President to reiterate his support for passage of legislation by Congress clarifying that the Equal Rights Amendment has met all requirements to be added to the U.S. Constitution, specifically Senate Joint Resolution 1 and House Resolution 891. We also encourage President Biden to reiterate his support for other equality legislation, including the Women’s Health Protection Act and reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act to strengthen protections for women dealing with domestic violence and sexual assault.”

“As we’ve unfortunately seen too often in recent years, landmark legislative victories to protect women can be weakened, rolled back, or even repealed depending on the whims of who is in office.”

“As long as legislators across the country continue to pass laws to perpetuate the second class citizenship of women, we will work to implement the Equal Rights Amendment–until we achieve true sex equality.”

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The ERA Coalition was founded in 2014 to bring concerted, organized action to the effort to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. The ERA Coalition has a sister organization, the Fund for Women’s Equality, which promotes public education and outreach on the need for constitutional equality. Comprised of nearly 250 organizations across the country, the Coalition provides education and advocacy on Constitutional Equality.

While the effort to amend the constitution to include sex equality began nearly a century ago, our renewed efforts are centered on Black, Indigenous and Women of Color, gender-nonconforming and transgender women and girls, and nonbinary people– those who are most impacted by systemic inequities.