Full Text of HJR0138 100th General Assembly
HJ0138 100TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, The Ninety-second Congress of the United States of | 3 | | America, at its Second
Session, via supermajority vote of both | 4 | | Houses adopted a Joint Resolution to amend the
Constitution of | 5 | | the United States of America with language commonly referred to | 6 | | as the "ERA"
on March 22, 1972, with a seven-year deadline for | 7 | | ratification by the states, to March 22, 1979; and
| 8 | | WHEREAS, The ERA reads, "Section 1: Equality of rights | 9 | | under the law shall not be denied or
abridged by the United | 10 | | States or by any state on account of sex.
Section 2: The | 11 | | Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate | 12 | | legislation, the
provisions of this article.
Section 3: This | 13 | | amendment shall take effect two years after the date of | 14 | | ratification."; and
| 15 | | WHEREAS, In 1983, Congressman F. James Sensenbrenner | 16 | | drafted and offered a commonsense
abortion neutrality clause to | 17 | | the ERA, which reads, "Nothing in this Article shall be
| 18 | | construed to grant, secure, or deny any right relating to | 19 | | abortion or the funding thereof."; and | 20 | | WHEREAS, On January 22, 1973, the United States Supreme | 21 | | Court issued Roe v. Wade and
Doe v. Bolton, overturning the | 22 | | abortion laws of 46 of the 50 states, including Illinois, and |
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| 1 | | reading
a right to abortion-until the moment of birth-into the | 2 | | United States Constitution, despite the
Constitution not | 3 | | including any mention of abortion whatsoever and abortion not | 4 | | being allowed in
the vast majority of states for most of U.S. | 5 | | history; and | 6 | | WHEREAS, Only 30 of the necessary 38 states ratified the | 7 | | ERA by the 1979 deadline, with 24
of those ratifications | 8 | | specifically referring to that 1979 deadline, and with 5 states | 9 | | approving but
then rescinding their ratifications; and | 10 | | WHEREAS, In 1978, Congress attempted to effect, via a | 11 | | statute passed by a mere majority
vote an extension of the | 12 | | ratification of the ERA, from the original deadline of seven | 13 | | years to June
30, 1982; and | 14 | | WHEREAS, The United States District Court ruled on December | 15 | | 23, 1981 in Idaho v.
Freeman that the attempted ERA extension | 16 | | attempted by Congress was unconstitutional and that
the | 17 | | rescissions of States from the ERA were constitutional and | 18 | | effective; and | 19 | | WHEREAS, In the appeal of Idaho v Freeman (NOW v Idaho), | 20 | | decided after the attempted
June 20, 1982 extended date for | 21 | | ratification, the United States Supreme Court vacated the | 22 | | court's
opinion and remanded to the District Court with |
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| 1 | | direction to dismiss the case as moot, thus
indicating that the | 2 | | ERA was no longer properly before the states for ratification; | 3 | | and | 4 | | WHEREAS, The Supreme Court has thus ruled that any action | 5 | | by the Illinois General
Assembly purporting to ratify the Equal | 6 | | Rights Amendment as adopted by the Congress in 1972
would be | 7 | | illegal and unconstitutional; and | 8 | | WHEREAS, One of the critical concerns of state legislators | 9 | | and citizens in the years post-Roe
was the emerging argument by | 10 | | proponents that ERA could force taxpayer funding of abortions,
| 11 | | reverse parental notice and consent requirements prior to an | 12 | | abortion performed on a minor, and
otherwise eviscerate state | 13 | | abortion regulations; and | 14 | | WHEREAS, When the ERA was reintroduced in Congress in 1983, | 15 | | numerous legislators and
religious leaders, including | 16 | | then-Chicago Cardinal Joseph Bernardin and the National
| 17 | | Conference of Catholic Bishops, stated that, while they wished | 18 | | to support ERA, they could not
do so unless and until an | 19 | | abortion neutrality clause was added to ERA, to ensure ERA | 20 | | could not
be used to force taxpayer-funded abortion, overturn | 21 | | parental notice laws, and other reasonable
abortion | 22 | | regulations; and |
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, As part of the deliberations on ERA in 1983, | 2 | | hearings were held before the United
States Senate Judiciary | 3 | | Constitution Subcommittee, where noted Illinois attorney and | 4 | | statesman
Congressman Henry J. Hyde, testified that, "recent | 5 | | experience suggests that the ERA, if it is
proposed and | 6 | | ratified without an explicit provision against its use as a | 7 | | proabortion device will, in
fact, be used to sweep away the | 8 | | minimal protection of unborn children that the courts currently
| 9 | | allow, and also to mandate tax funding for abortions"; and | 10 | | WHEREAS, Congressman Hyde specifically recited in his | 11 | | testimony legal cases from 1978
Hawaii Right to Life v. Chang, | 12 | | 1980 Moe v. King (Massachusetts), and 1983 Fischer, Planned
| 13 | | Parenthood, et al v. Department of Public Welfare | 14 | | (Pennsylvania), where the ACLU repeatedly
argued that ERA | 15 | | mandated taxpayer-funded abortion; and
| 16 | | WHEREAS, The pro-choice sponsors of ERA rejected and | 17 | | refused to adopt the Sensenbrenner
abortion neutrality | 18 | | language when ERA was reintroduced in 1983, which caused the
| 19 | | reintroduced ERA to fail in the Congress; and
| 20 | | WHEREAS, In the years since, the Supreme Court of New | 21 | | Mexico decided NM Right to Choose/NARAL v. Johnson, unanimously | 22 | | holding that the New Mexico constitution's ERA requires
| 23 | | taxpayer funded abortion; the Connecticut Superior Court |
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| 1 | | decided Doe v. Maher, holding that
the Connecticut | 2 | | constitution's ERA requires taxpayer funded abortion; the | 3 | | Texas Court of
Appeals, Third District, decided Low-Income | 4 | | Women of Texas v. Bost, holding that Texas
constitution's ERA | 5 | | requires taxpayer funded abortion (later reversed); the | 6 | | Illinois Appellate
Court, 1st District, decided Hope Clinic v. | 7 | | Adams, holding that the Illinois constitution's clause
| 8 | | guaranteeing equal protection for sex requires strict and | 9 | | presumably fatal scrutiny to be applied
against the Illinois | 10 | | Parental Notice of Abortion Act (later reversed); and
| 11 | | WHEREAS, The Illinois General Assembly supports passage of | 12 | | the ERA in a modified form, to
ensure ERA's neutrality on | 13 | | taxpayer funded abortion, parental notice prior to an abortion, | 14 | | and
other regulations on abortion; therefore, be it
| 15 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | 16 | | HUNDREDTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE SENATE | 17 | | CONCURRING HEREIN, that we hereby urge Congress to adopt anew | 18 | | the ERA, with the common-sense
abortion-neutral language of | 19 | | Congressman Sensenbrenner, and send it to the states for
| 20 | | ratification; and be it further
| 21 | | RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be | 22 | | presented to the Speaker and Clerk of
the United States House | 23 | | of Representatives, the President Pro Tempore and Secretary of |
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| 1 | | the
United States Senate, and the members of the Illinois | 2 | | Congressional Delegation.
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