ERA Passes the Illinois Senate and Heads to the House

By May 1, 2018Illinois

We must stop the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in the House!  Please contact your representatives immediately!

 As you may know, the Senate passed the resolution to adopt the Equal Rights Amendment, SJRCA0004, on April 11 with a vote of 43-12. Unbelievably, seven uninformed Republicans joined with Senate Democrats, justifying their “Yes” votes as supporting “women’s rights”.  They are:  Pam Althoff (R-Crystal Lake), Jason Barickman (R-Pontiac), Mike Connelly (R-Wheaton), Karen McConnaughay (R-West Dundee), Chris Nybo (R-Hinsdale), Sue Rezin (R-Morris), and Tom Rooney (R-Palatine).

SJRCA0004 is now in the House Rules Committee. Click here to read it and track it through the Illinois Legislature.

Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) proponents, buoyed by pro-abortion, pro-LGBQT victories last session, are eager to pass the resolution while Gov. Rauner is in office.  Rauner, who originally campaigned on the promise he would remain neutral on social issues, has a 100% record of signing horrific social issues bills into law – including tax-payer abortion and transgender birth certificate bills.

Since April 11, the number of House co-sponsors went from one to 27.

We conservatives need to fight twice as hard to see that it is defeated in the Illinois House. Your Representative needs to hear from you!

Please take action:

  1. Contact the five members of the House Rules Committee and ask them to vote NO on SJRCA0004, the resolution to adopt the ERA. Let them know that you are a member of Concerned Women for America of Illinois. Click here for their contact information.
  2. Contact your representative and ask him/her to vote NO on SJRCA0004, the resolution to adopt the ERA. Let their office know that you are a member of Concerned Women for America of Illinois. Click here to find out who he/she is and how to contact.

Please pray:

  • Thank the Lord for the many times He has held back the ERA in Illinois. Ask Him to once again intervene on our behalf and end this abominable law once and for all.

If passed, the ERA would:

  • Add these words to the U.S. Constitution: “Equality of rights under law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of sex.”
  • Wipe out all ability to use any laws using gender as a defining characteristic therefore overturn workplace and family laws that protect women; privacy laws that define who may use gender oriented bathrooms and locker rooms; and religious freedom laws.
  • Integrate same-sex and bi-sexual attraction into the U.S. Constitution.
  • Be used to write abortion rights into our U.S. Constitution with the rationale that restricting access to abortion is a form of gender discrimination (since it singles women out for a physical aspect unique to them).
  • Affect additional areas of life including social security, Medicare, health, insurance benefits, Medicare benefits, and more.

ERA History:

  • In order to be added to the U.S. Constitution, the ERA needed approval by legislatures in three-fourths (38) of the 50 states by 1979.
  • To date 36 states have ratified the ERA, one of which was after the 1979 deadline.
  • If two more states ratify it, the U.S. Constitution can be amended if a suspension were given.
  • From 1972 – 2017 the Illinois General Assembly has voted NO on ERA 13 times.

Do not grow weary.  I know we have fought this year after year, but because we fought it, we have stopped it year after year. “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:0).

Debbie Leininger
State Director
CWA of Illinois
director@illinois.cwfa.org
il.cwfa.org
(815) 297-2918

Become a part of CWA of Illinois! Together we can make a difference in our communities, state and country. Contact me today!