Constitutional Equality for All Women

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Constitutional Equality for All Women
A Work in Progress

The following is the working draft of an equal rights amendment developed and written by the National Organization for Women. History and experience have taught us that it is critically important to be as explicit as possible and leave little to interpretation by congress or the courts. This proposed amendment, referred to as the Constitution Equality Amendment (CEA) has incorporated all of the concerns that have arisen out of a two year study of the ERA which reviewed the history of the amendment from 1923 until the present.

Section 1.	Women and men shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place and entity subject to its jurisdiction; through this article, the subordination of women to men is abolished;
Section 2.	All persons shall have equal rights and privileges without discrimination on account of sex, race, sexual orientation, marital status, ethnicity, national origin, color or indigence;
Section 3.	This article prohibits pregnancy discrimination and guarantees the absolute right of a woman to make her own reproductive decisions including the termination of pregnancy;
Section 4.	This article prohibits discrimination based upon characteristics unique to or stereotypes about any class protected under this article. This article also prohibits discrimination through the use of any facially neutral criteria which have a disparate impact based on membership in a class protected under this article.
Section 5.	This article does not preclude any law, program or activity that would remedy the effects of discrimination and that is closely related to achieving such remedial purposes;
Section 6.	This article shall be interpreted under the highest standard of judicial review;
Section 7.	The United States and the several states shall guarantee the implementation and enforcement of this article.

Adopted July, 1995 at the NOW annual conference

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