The United States president called on Congress on Thursday to immediately enshrine the Equal Rights Amendment in the Constitution and to formally protect women’s rights decades after they were established.
President Biden called on Congress to pass a resolution recognising the ratification of the ERA in a statement released by the White House after a legal analysis there was nothing preventing lawmakers from acting.
The U.S. Constitution must explicitly enshrine the principle of gender equality in accordance with the will of the American people. Biden said that the time has come for all doubts to be put to rest. “No one should be discriminated against because of their gender and as a nation, we must stand up for full equality for women.”
Biden’s call comes amid ongoing legal disputes over the ERA, which Congress passed in the early 1970s with a 1982 deadline for enactment if 38 state legislatures approved it.
After Virginia ratified it in 2020, then President Donald Trump issued a memo that blocked ratification, saying the process needed to be restarted, preventing the bill from becoming law.
Biden added that the Justice Department’s new analysis cleared the way for Congress’ move, saying the memo “makes it clear there is nothing standing in the way of that.”
