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<\/a><\/p>\nBy Katharine Jackson<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate on Thursday fell short of the votes needed to enshrine equal rights for women in the Constitution, a century after a guarantee of gender equality was proposed in Congress.<\/p>\n
With a 51-47 vote in favor, Senate Democrats and supporters were nine votes shy of the 60 needed for a resolution to clear the 100-member chamber’s filibuster hurdle. <\/p>\n
The resolution would have removed a 1982 deadline for state ratification that prevented the Equal Rights Amendment from going into effect. Three states — Nevada, Illinois and Virginia — approved it after 1982. <\/p>\n
Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said the ERA was more important since the Supreme Court last year overturned the national right to abortion.<\/p>\n
“To the horror of hundreds of millions of American people, women in America have far fewer rights today than they did even a year ago,” Schumer said prior to Thursday’s vote. <\/p>\n
Groups opposed to abortion have argued the ERA could provide an avenue to making abortion a constitutional right, and the amendment’s failure is likely to increase attention on women’s rights in the 2024 White House campaign. <\/p>\n
Passage of Thursday’s resolution would have required the support of nine Republicans in the Senate, where Democrats hold a narrow 51-49 majority. Only two Republican senators, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, joined Democrats in voting for the measure. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The ERA was proposed in 1923 but did not pass Congress until 1972. Under U.S. law, amendments to the Constitution must be ratified by three-fourths, or 38 of the 50, state legislatures and do not require presidential approval. <\/p>\n
A U.S. District Court ruled in 2021 that ratifications after the deadline “came too late to count.” And a federal appeals court in February rejected calls from Illinois and Nevada for the ERA to be adopted. <\/p>\n
The Trump administration argued that ERA ratification needed to start over. The Biden administration has not formally changed that position but voiced support for the resolution on Thursday.<\/p>\n
“It is long past time to definitively enshrine the principle of gender equality in the Constitution,” the White House said. <\/p>\n
Proponents of the amendment say it would ensure women get equal pay and secure their rights in legal matters, while opponents argue it could subject women to a military draft if it were reinstated.<\/p>\n
\n(Reporting by Katharine Jackson; Editing by Scott Malone, Jonathan Oatis and Cynthia Osterman)<\/p>\n
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