HJ0138 100TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HJ0138 LRB100 22309 MST 41094 r

HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The Ninety-second Congress of the United States of America, at its Second Session, via supermajority vote of both Houses adopted a Joint Resolution to amend the Constitution of the United States of America with language commonly referred to as the "ERA" on March 22, 1972, with a seven-year deadline for ratification by the states, to March 22, 1979; and

WHEREAS, The ERA reads, "Section 1: Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. Section 2: The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. Section 3: This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification."; and

WHEREAS, In 1983, Congressman F. James Sensenbrenner drafted and offered a commonsense abortion neutrality clause to the ERA, which reads, "Nothing in this Article shall be construed to grant, secure, or deny any right relating to abortion or the funding thereof."; and

WHEREAS, On January 22, 1973, the United States Supreme Court issued Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, overturning the abortion laws of 46 of the 50 states, including Illinois, and reading a right to abortion-until the moment of birth-into the United States Constitution, despite the Constitution not including any mention of abortion whatsoever and abortion not being allowed in the vast majority of states for most of U.S. history; and

WHEREAS, Only 30 of the necessary 38 states ratified the ERA by the 1979 deadline, with 24 of those ratifications specifically referring to that 1979 deadline, and with 5 states approving but then rescinding their ratifications; and

WHEREAS, In 1978, Congress attempted to effect, via a statute passed by a mere majority vote an extension of the ratification of the ERA, from the original deadline of seven years to June 30, 1982; and

WHEREAS, The United States District Court ruled on December 23, 1981 in Idaho v. Freeman that the attempted ERA extension attempted by Congress was unconstitutional and that the rescissions of States from the ERA were constitutional and effective; and

WHEREAS, In the appeal of Idaho v Freeman (NOW v Idaho), decided after the attempted June 20, 1982 extended date for ratification, the United States Supreme Court vacated the court's opinion and remanded to the District Court with direction to dismiss the case as moot, thus indicating that the ERA was no longer properly before the states for ratification; and

WHEREAS, The Supreme Court has thus ruled that any action by the Illinois General Assembly purporting to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment as adopted by the Congress in 1972 would be illegal and unconstitutional; and

WHEREAS, One of the critical concerns of state legislators and citizens in the years post-Roe was the emerging argument by proponents that ERA could force taxpayer funding of abortions, reverse parental notice and consent requirements prior to an abortion performed on a minor, and otherwise eviscerate state abortion regulations; and

WHEREAS, When the ERA was reintroduced in Congress in 1983, numerous legislators and religious leaders, including then-Chicago Cardinal Joseph Bernardin and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, stated that, while they wished to support ERA, they could not do so unless and until an abortion neutrality clause was added to ERA, to ensure ERA could not be used to force taxpayer-funded abortion, overturn parental notice laws, and other reasonable abortion regulations; and

WHEREAS, As part of the deliberations on ERA in 1983, hearings were held before the United States Senate Judiciary Constitution Subcommittee, where noted Illinois attorney and statesman Congressman Henry J. Hyde, testified that, "recent experience suggests that the ERA, if it is proposed and ratified without an explicit provision against its use as a proabortion device will, in fact, be used to sweep away the minimal protection of unborn children that the courts currently allow, and also to mandate tax funding for abortions"; and

WHEREAS, Congressman Hyde specifically recited in his testimony legal cases from 1978 Hawaii Right to Life v. Chang, 1980 Moe v. King (Massachusetts), and 1983 Fischer, Planned Parenthood, et al v. Department of Public Welfare (Pennsylvania), where the ACLU repeatedly argued that ERA mandated taxpayer-funded abortion; and

WHEREAS, The pro-choice sponsors of ERA rejected and refused to adopt the Sensenbrenner abortion neutrality language when ERA was reintroduced in 1983, which caused the reintroduced ERA to fail in the Congress; and

WHEREAS, In the years since, the Supreme Court of New Mexico decided NM Right to Choose/NARAL v. Johnson, unanimously holding that the New Mexico constitution's ERA requires taxpayer funded abortion; the Connecticut Superior Court decided Doe v. Maher, holding that the Connecticut constitution's ERA requires taxpayer funded abortion; the Texas Court of Appeals, Third District, decided Low-Income Women of Texas v. Bost, holding that Texas constitution's ERA requires taxpayer funded abortion (later reversed); the Illinois Appellate Court, 1st District, decided Hope Clinic v. Adams, holding that the Illinois constitution's clause guaranteeing equal protection for sex requires strict and presumably fatal scrutiny to be applied against the Illinois Parental Notice of Abortion Act (later reversed); and

WHEREAS, The Illinois General Assembly supports passage of the ERA in a modified form, to ensure ERA's neutrality on taxpayer funded abortion, parental notice prior to an abortion, and other regulations on abortion; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, that we hereby urge Congress to adopt anew the ERA, with the common-sense abortion-neutral language of Congressman Sensenbrenner, and send it to the states for ratification; and be it further

RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be presented to the Speaker and Clerk of the United States House of Representatives, the President Pro Tempore and Secretary of the United States Senate, and the members of the Illinois Congressional Delegation.