The latest in ERA News By Liz Jordan

National AAUW

On Dec. 13, 2023, AAUW participated in the ERA Coalition March in Washington DC.  Our CEO, Gloria Blackwell, spoke during the program, which was streamed on Facebook.  We were alerted to this event by email.  Did you tune in?

According to Meghan Kissel, AAUW senior director of policy and membership advocacy, AAUW’s strategy is as follows:

Congress:

• 2 Joint Resolutions: H.J. 25 to affirm that the deadline is arbitrary and, therefore, remove it. AND H.J. 82 to remove the deadline and ask the Archivist to publish the ERA as the 28^th Amendment.
• Discharge petition to get H.J. 25 out of the Judiciary Committee (Chaired by Rep. J. Jordan of Ohio) and force a vote.

States:

• Some states will be introducing resolutions of support for the ERA, serving to continue putting pressure on the Biden administration.

2024 Elections:

• Polling shows favorable numbers for the ERA, and the November elections are critically important. Electing representatives, as well as senators, who believe in the necessity for an Equal Rights Amendment could produce the majority and, hopefully, the 60 percent needed in the Senate to pass the previously mentioned resolutions.

National urges us to use the Two-Minute Activist tool that comes with email messages from Washington.  It’s so easy to use; just click through, type in your name etc. and send!! On Dec. 18 we received an email from Meghan Kissell about supporting AAUW’s efforts to get the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA) passed by using the Two Minute Activist.  It took me less than a minute to send email messages to both California senators and my House representative.  If you haven’t tried it, you really should.  It makes me feel like I can do something besides jump up and down!!

AAUW also recommends writing letters to the editor, which has two lives – first when letters are read in the publication, and again when they are posted on social media and tagged to the decision makers in question, i.e. Biden, your House representative, senator, etc.  We do have voices.  We just need to use them.

Local Letter Writing

As a follow-up to our joint Oct. 14 meeting about the Crises in Reproductive Healthcare and the ERA, the CHAR branch (Citrus Heights/American River) formed a new interest group called the Social Justice Power Hour.  They have been writing to the news media and politicians, and when we hear back, we will “shout it from the rooftops!”

A Novel Suggestion

Bonnie Penix, in Sacramento AAUW, sent me a suggestion for a good novel, “A Spark of Light” by Jodie Picoult on the topic of reproductive healthcare.  Bonnie writes: It is about a women’s reproductive health services center and those who come for birth control, abortions, etc.  It takes place in Mississippi. While fiction, it touches on so many of the stories in The Abortion Chronicles, the reader’s theater presentation we performed at the October meeting. Bonnie says book groups might want to put it on their lists for their future selection meetings and perhaps it could become an all-Sacramento-branch reads.  So, Book Groups, take notice!

Need an email message model?

One last item on the local list is a model email message that you can adopt or adapt, address it, sign it, and make it your own.  As I mentioned at the December branch meeting, I am including a model email message you might want to adopt and use.  National’s critique was that the tone of my model was “too confrontational” and, therefore, less effective.  I made some modifications to the model to lower the confrontational temperature.  However, every individual should modify it to her own voice and intention.  You may access here through this link <here>.