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Virginia Moves to Brink of Becoming 38th State to Ratify ERA

Associated Press

   RICHMOND, VIRGINIA - Virginia on Wednesday moved to the brink of
   becoming the crucial 38th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment in
   what was seen as a momentous victory for the women's rights movement
   even though it is far from certain the measure will ever be added to
   the U.S. Constitution.

   The state House and Senate approved the proposed amendment with
   bipartisan support, well over a generation after Congress sent the ERA
   to the states for ratification in 1972. Each chamber now must pass the
   other's resolution, but final passage is considered all but certain.

   Amendments to the Constitution must be ratified by three-quarters of
   the states, or 38. But whether this one will go on to become the 28th
   Amendment may have to be decided in court because the deadline set by
   Congress for ratification of the ERA ran out in 1982 and because five
   states that approved it in the 1970s have since rescinded their
   support.

   Still, the twin votes carried symbolic weight and showed how much
   once-solidly conservative Virginia, a place that defeated the ERA time
   and again, has changed.

   Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy, a sponsor of the House ERA measure, told her
   colleagues they were taking "the vote of a lifetime."

   "One hundred and sixty million women and girls across this country are
   waiting and will forever be changed by what happens in this body here
   today," she said.

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