On July 5, 1852, abolitionist Frederick Douglass gave a well-known speak in New York. Known because the “What, to a Slave, is July Fourth” speech, he spoke concerning the which means of Independence Day to thousands and thousands of enslaved Black folks.
Let’s reimagine these phrases on behalf of 170 million girls in America within the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s determination overturning Roe v. Wade: “What, to the American woman, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to her, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which she is the constant victim.”
“To her your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants (in Russia), brass-fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery.”
Women don’t have any Frederick Douglass to talk for them at this time as a result of most girls’s rights teams are sickeningly submissive to the Democratic Party despite the fact that the Democrats have carried out little for girls’s equality.
Women have been preventing for equality since earlier than the Equal Rights Amendment, or ERA, was first filed with Congress again in 1923. It states, “Equality of rights … cannot be denied or abridged … on account of sex.” The ERA lastly handed Congress in 1972 and was ratified by the states in January 2020, however the Trump administration blocked it. Women then voted for Joe Biden as a result of he stated he supported the ERA, however when he took workplace he refused to assist, and continued to dam the ERA the identical manner Trump did.
The Dobbs ruling has girls trying to Democrats for solutions, however they will’t overturn the Supreme Court. The solely factor the Democrats can do is stress Biden to unblock the ERA. This would reboot the Constitution and permit courts to reject Dobbs on the grounds that it was determined when girls didn’t have full and equal rights.
Voting for Democrats who say they assist abortion however refuse to stress Biden to unblock the ERA is like voting for politicians who assist slavery however promise to present the slaves new socks.
Until Biden unblocks the ERA, girls ought to set up a political union that brings unaligned girls along with girls from each main events based mostly solely on their dedication to the significance of ladies’s equality. This new bipartisan energy will give girls the leverage they should power all politicians to prioritize the ERA above all different points, together with abortion.
With the ERA within the Constitution, courts shall be compelled to deal with girls as absolutely equal residents in all authorized issues. Without the ERA, courts are free to deal with girls as second-class residents the best way the Supreme Court did in Dobbs. As Justice Alito’s opinion made clear, “the Court (is) reluctant to recognize rights (or people) that are not mentioned in the Constitution.”
Until the ERA is regulation, even 10-year-old women who change into pregnant from rape could be compelled to present start. Under Roe this may have violated the Fourteenth Amendment, however pregnant girls now not have Fourteenth Amendment rights. The ERA will set up higher and stronger rights for girls.
Women can’t in good conscience vote for Democrats or Republicans as a result of to take action is to vote for their very own enslavement. Women can, nevertheless, unionize throughout celebration strains and of their newfound solidarity clarify they are going to solely vote for candidates that prioritize the ERA, and fiercely oppose those who don’t.
Abortion is just not on the poll in November, the ERA is, and the Democrats are in hassle as a result of Biden is just not solely blocking it, he’s additionally preventing in opposition to it in a federal case often known as Illinois v. Ferriero. Three different ERA lawsuits are pending in states the place Democrats are being sued for not implementing the ERA.
How the Democrats reply to those lawsuits, not platitudes about abortion, will dictate how girls vote and who takes cost of Congress this fall.
Wendy Murphy is a lawyer and victims’ rights advocate.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”