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I need the ERA because…a girl is not a wife – Child marriage

85% of UN Member States in the world have constitutions that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex and/or gender. The United States is not one of them.

It is estimated by Unchained at Last that about 300,000 children were married in the United States between 2000 and 2018, the majority of which were young girls married to adult men. Hundreds of thousands of American children were entered into matrimony because 37 states don’t have laws that prohibit marriage under the age of 18, without exception, and there is no federal law prohibiting it.

As part of our I Need the ERA because campaign, launched to mark Women’s Equality Day 2022, we take a closer look at how the ERA would help move the needle on four crucial issues for women and girls, including child marriage.

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I need the ERA because…reproductive rights are human rights – Abortion

By rightfully framing access to reproductive healthcare, including access to legal abortion, as fundamental to ensuring gende…

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I need the ERA because… I have the right to bodily integrity – FGM

Despite the prevalence of the practice in the USA and the persisting risk to many women and girls, 20% of American states do …

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I need the ERA because… one in three women experience violence in her lifetime – Gender Based Violence

Data shows that marginalized communities, such as indigenous women, Black women, and young women will be disproportionately a…

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I need the ERA because…LGBTQ+ rights are human rights 

Because discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation is sex discrimination, the ERA will make it much…

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I need the ERA because… economic rights are human rights

In the United States, women do not have protections nor an explicit guarantee of equality on the basis of sex or gender withi…

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I need the ERA because…without the ERA, the US violates international law

In October 2023, the United States was reviewed by the United Nations Human Rights Committee, and for the first time, a UN tr…

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I need the ERA because…paid care is a right – gender equality and the care economy

For more than a century, feminists have realized that omitting sex discrimination from the Constitution presents a major barr…

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I need the ERA because…the voice of the US legal profession endorses it!

In August 2024, The American Bar Association, the largest national volunteer association of lawyers in the world, adopted&nbs…

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