Comedian John Oliver did a segment last week on the Equal Rights Amendment that was incredibly biased and inaccurate. It’s not the first time, but Oliver is either lying or remarkably misinformed — or some combination of both.
The text of the Equal Rights Amendment is short and sweet. Section 1 succinctly states, “Women shall have equal rights in the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” The amendment adds that it will become part of the Constitution only if ratified by the requisite three-fourths of the states by March 22, 1979.
Oliver correctly noted that the amendment “sailed through Congress” in 1972 with 84 senators supporting it. In fact, it was so popular that 22 states ratified it by the end of the year. But after 1972, the movement started to run out of gas, leaving the ERA short of the support needed to be ratified into the U.S. Constitution. Relatedly, four of those initial 22 states repealed their ratifications. Oliver completely ignored this last night, and he also failed to address the amendment’s dissolving support after 1972, as if it was some odd mystery.
However, it’s no mystery at all, because in 1973, the political playing field for “women’s rights” was changed forever.
On Jan. 22, 1973, the Supreme Court delivered its landmark decision in Roe v. Wade, which established legal protection for abortion in all 50 states. This gave many legislators second thoughts about the Equal Rights Amendment. When the bill passed Congress and state legislatures in 1972, its protection of “equal rights” for women was not understood to protect abortion. After Roe, legislators understood the ERA could in fact be used to further protect abortion, and the bipartisan support came to a halt.
John Oliver correctly stated “the ERA doesn’t say anything about abortion” in its text, but its advocates clearly believe that it will have a major effect on abortion. In Connecticut and New Mexico, state ERAs have been interpreted to defend taxpayer funding for abortion when the procedure is “medically necessary.” The official ERA website concedes this point. Additionally, the Daily Beast ran a piece last year arguing that the ERA was the best way to “save Roe.” While social liberals like Oliver have tried to hide the ERA’s ties to abortion policy, several liberal journalists, judges, and legislators have clearly shown their hand.
If Oliver’s comments on abortion policy were misleading, his statements on the ratification process were blatantly false.
“We are tantalizingly close,” he said. “Thirty-seven states have ratified it over the years, so we’re just one away,” Oliver said. However, the situation is far more complex than that. Five of those 37 states repealed their ratifications following Roe. The Constitution doesn’t specify whether a state can repeal its ratification of a constitutional amendment or not, so there will likely be a messy legal battle in the courts ahead. But this would be a major obstacle for ERA advocates, and Oliver completely ignored it.
Oliver also gave his liberal viewers false hope regarding Congress’ ability to change the ERA’s deadline after the fact with a simple majority in Congress, as it purported to do in 1978 when it extended the ratification deadline to 1982. The Supreme Court decided after the second deadline passed that the issue was moot, after a federal district judge in Idaho ruled that the deadline extension was invalid and that states could rescind ratification. Oliver made it seem a lot more simple: “Yes, the deadline passed in 1982,” he said, “but legal scholars believe that Congress could simply change the deadline again, or eliminate the deadline entirely.”
This is foolish. And anyone who believes Congress can “simply” pass anything is obviously unfamiliar with how Congress works.
The mainstream media has recently been calling the Republican Senate Mitch McConnell’s “legislative graveyard” after McConnell called himself the “Grim Reaper” who will ensure leftist legislation doesn’t land on Trump’s desk. Despite this, Oliver seems to think the Republican Senate would let the ERA “sail through” as it did in the pre-Roe era.
Additionally, Oliver quickly skimmed over the fact that the ERA would likely require women to register for the Selective Service. The comedian treated this as an insignificant footnote, but it’s a major facet of the ERA that should give many left-leaning women second thoughts. Is the “right” to abortion worth the risk of being drafted into the military? Many would confidently say it is, but others would certainly disagree, making the ERA less appealing to women than Oliver would lead his followers to believe.
The rest of the leftist media is playing along with Oliver’s false narrative too. In their coverage of Oliver’s segment, Huffington Post, Rolling Stone, and similar outlets have praised the comedian while failing to mention any of his factual omissions.
Oliver’s inaccuracies aren’t just bad for the general public; they’re bad for his own audience. An angry, bitter, and frustrated political faction will become even more so when they find out the ERA is not the cakewalk to sunshine and rainbows that the liberal media promised.
