AUGUST, 1977 NOW I' \(ol I CONSERVATION COALITION THREATENS WOMEN'S RIGHTS RIGHT WINGERS AND THE ERA by Lucy Komisar The is openly involved where thelr oxen are gored. titled The Machismo Factor.) in the anti-ERA campaign, and its national (Lucy Komisar Is author of The New (Note. This article has been reprinted Why would a leaflet against the Equal speaker on the Issue, State Sen. Mary Helm Femlnlsm and Down and Out In the U.S.A. with permission from the Philadelphia Rights Amendment include an attack on of Oklahoma, was featured at the She ls presently worltlng on a new booll Inquirer, Monday, June 27, 1977} OSHA - the Labor Department's Tallahassee rally Schlafly headlined in Occupational Safety and Health April. Helm told me she is also a member of Administration? Why do anti-ERA meetings the . feature speakers urging people to support Schlafly herself was a Birch Society right-to-work laws and continued American member, according to the Socfety's March, control of the ? 1960 Bulletin, although she now denies, this, The answer is that the national campaign and she spoke at the organization's national to defeat the ERA is not a spontaneous "God, Family and Country" rally a few movement by housewives and others who years ago. want to maintain women's traditional role Harry Dent, the former Nixon aide who or who fear the loss of benefits or protec­ lives in South Carolina, says Birchers are tions. It is a movement aimed at organizing heavily involved in the anti-ERA campaign women into a political machine to elect In his state and that it has proved a good conservatives to office and to support right­ organiZing tool for the radical right. "If they wing views on a host of national and In­ did not have ERA as an issue, they w.ould ternational issues. invent it." The effort to scuttle the ERA has been The findamentalist and Mormon churches shaped and directed nationally by Phyllis have been crucial to the success of the Stop SchJafly, a former Goldwater activist, ERA movement, for they provide their whose interests and ambitions go far beyond congregations to people rallies, write letters that Issue. She once tried to win personal and lobby in state houses. At the Tallhassee political power as president of the National demonstration that drew upwards of a Federation or Republican Women but was thousand, almost everyone I spoke to had defeated in 1967. come In bus and car caravans organized by A few years ago, she set up the Eagle their ministers. Forum, a national women's organization ERA is only one Item on a much larger whose members are drawn from her old agenda for this coalition. The churches, for Members or tbe Omana, Nebraska cbapter ol NOW demonstrated recently ln front or a GOP supporters and new people brought In example, care most about batWng what warehouse owned by a firm who bas aDDOUDCed plans to distribute Coon t>eer. Coors was through anti-ERA activities. they call"humanistic," as against religious, targeted because or contributions to antl-Euqal Rights Amendment forces. On tbe left Is Anti-feminism Is good bait for traditional education, and Interviews with Stop ERA Sandi Skornlak, Nebraska State Coordinator aDd on the right Ia Jane Dietrich who co-chali'ed and complex conservative Issues. leaders in several states indicate that the tbe picket with Ann Bf!oey. Once they are In the RJ'GJPS, however, next major issue to unite the Right wUl be an they are educated to oppose pro-labor attack on school books. legislation, the ban on Rhodesian chrome, Schlafly bas already discussed this In her gun control and federal civil rights and S&HLAFL¥ ENDORSES BABY SALES monthly newsletters: The campaign will be (Note: The followl~g Is the transcript of waiting lists and can't possibly satisfy the workplace safety laws. The Florida Stop based on the same "threat to the family" ERA president took the opportunity to at­ the February 10, 1977 broadcast on demand. On the black market, man~ theme that has proved so successful in SPECTRUM, "varying shades of personal couples have paid $10,000 or more to get a tack busing as a massive anti-ERA rally in derailing ERA. opfnfon on current Issues", a CBS produced baby The P.rice in New York City is Tallahassee. The' 'threat to the family" comes from the national radfo presentation. The text Is reported as high as $35,000. The Stop ERA groups are tied to rightist continuing attempts at a "federal power reprinted in total. we just thought you might What's so wrong about that? If I hadn't organizations like the Conservative Caucus, grab" which Is the rubric that covers a like to see what Schlafley realfy advocates been blessed with babies of my own, I would the American Conservative Union, the John multitude of government sins. The long, for the "family") have been happy lo have paid thousands of Birch Society and the Mormon and fun­ Interfering arm of Washington is charged I'm dollars for a baby Where there is a willing damentalist churches. There are in­ with trying to run people's lives to make In recent months, there have been a seller and an eager buyer, and the baby terlocking directorates, helpful donations of them jom unions, tell them how to run their number of arrests for the crime of selling moves from an unwanted environment into expensive mailings and starr and joint ef­ businesses, force school integration and tax babies. The very idea of paying m oney £or a home with loving adoptive parents, forts to gel bodies to attend rallies and lobby workers to pay for the idle. legislators. human beings sound offensive to a civilized where's the crime? The right-wing coalition sees the im­ soc1ety , nnd pollee have m oved Adoptlon agencies argue that all adop· Schlafly, for example, Is on the national portance of uniting to help each other on the energetically ngainst the guilty parents and tions should go through their hands in order board of the American Conservative Union, various issues different groups care most baby brokers. , to provide the best placement for cacy baby which se;s to..dul eight-win candidates to about. Their "powerful" opponents are state an rocal ornce dispersed and divided I think it's time to revise our thinking and confidentiality of the parties I agree about th1s problem, but h rst let's define it that 1s the better way But it doesn't Schlafly also gets help from the Con­ The liberal. labor and educational com­ We are not talking about either abandoning necessarily follow that those who choose an servative Caucus, the national group set up munities which are headquartered m or abusing a child. Those arc both crimes alternate procedure should be sent to ja il. by Howard Ph1hps, who IS the man N1xon Washington and m the cities of states that appomted to dismantle the anti-poverty have already ratified the ERA have given that should be severely punished. Much pubhc1ty was recentl) gl\'cn to a program. The caucus spent $65,000 to send spoken endorsement but generally little The crime that needs to be re-evaluated IS young couple who allegedly sold their five- month-old baby for $80. The baby had been out anti·ERA mailings to North Carolina achve support to the ratification campaigns the case of parents who don't want their well taken care of. Although their motive in and Florida just before the votes in those elsewhere. President Carter's involvement baby, but do want the baby to be provided selling the baby is unclear It would be legislatures, and Janine Hansen, regional has been more talk than action. They may for in n good home with loving foster ridiculous to send that pathebc couple to jail director of the Conservative Caucus for be unhappily surprised when the con­ parents. Most of us can't imagine a mother for a year, the prescribed punishment for Oregon, Washington and California, was servative forces organized through the Stop who doesn't want her baby, but some come that offense. detailed to be Schlafly's aide. ERA campaign are used to oppose them to that conclusion because of the shame of 1 suggest that the pollee spend all their illegitimacy, the tender age of the mother, available time protecting society against emotional immaturity, econom1c hardship, real criminals, instead of chao;in,z 11ff er NOW OPPOSES ABORTION RESlRI&liONS or the burdens of single parenthood. those whose actions tresult in transferring Arlie Scott weiker, Sparkman, Stennis, Stone, Thur­ On the other side of the scale, there are babies to better homes than tlU.. .) \\t!lt! bvr1 June was the cruelest month for women's mond, Young, Zorinsky. thousands of couples who, to their acute Into. If there is such a thing as a victimless r ight to choose safe and legal abortions. On The Packwood motion to strike a lso failed disappointment, are unable to have babies crime, this is it. June 25th the Supreme Court compromised 42-56. Those Senators supporting Packwood, of their own. Adoption agencies have long I'm Phyllis Schafley for Spectrum. its 197S ruling that a woman has a con­ opposil\g any restrictions of a women's right stitutional right to an abortion In the nrst to choose an abortion, deserve special en­ three months of her pregnancy by couragment: GAY RIGHTS GOALS DEVELOPED restricting that right to those women who Abourezk, Bayh, Bellmon, Bentsen, can afford to pay for medically safe abor­ Brooke, Bumpers, Case, Chafee, Clark, tions. State and local governments, ruled Cranston, Culver, Glenn, Gravel, Hansen, by Sandy Roth exchange between NOW and the NGTF will the Court in a 6-3 decision, do not have to Hart, Haskell, Hathaway, Hayakawa, NOW President, Ellie Smeal and Vice contribute to a stronger movement for finance elective abortions of poor women, Hollings, Inouye, Jackson, Javlts, President-Action, Arlie Scott met with human rights In this country." opening the way for legislators to decide the Magnuson, Mathias, Matsunaga, leaders of the National Gay Task Force on fate of an estimated 300,000 women who McGovern, Metcalf, Metzenbaum, Monday, July 11, 1977 In the Washington, receive Medicaid funds for abortions an­ Moynihan, Nelson, Packwood, Percy, D.C. office of Senator Alan Cranston (D., NATIONAL BOARD nually. Ribicoff, Riegle, Schmitt, Scott, Stafford, Cal). The purpose of the meeting was to -Both houses of Congress have taken the Stevens, Stevenson-, Tower, Weicker, draw upon the decades of experience of SITES SOUGHT first steps towards doing just that. By a vote Williams. NOW and other clvU rights leaders in The National Board Meetings will be of 201 to 155, the House approved the Hyde Pro-choice Senators voted for the final developing the long-range and short-term rotating through the Regions, as directed In amendment - banning Medicaid payments Senate version of the appropriations bill goals of the gay-rights movement. the National Bylaws. Would your city like to for abortions eyen where the Ilfe of the beeause the Packwood motion had already NGTF Co-Executive Directors sponsor the ne~t National Board Meeting~ woman Is In jeopardy. The Senate modified failed and the tenn "medically necessary" Jean O'Leary and Bruce Voeller hailed the The city should be accessible by air, have the House language to allow abortions In (which can be interpreted broadly to include conference as a major step towards aligning reasonably priced accommodations and cases where "the Hfe of the mother would be the mental and emotional as well as the and uniting civil-rights organizations in the meeting space conducive to conducting lots endangered if the fetus were carried to physical well being of the woman) was the United States and applauded the other of business. For further details or to submit tenn, or where medically necessary, or for least restrictive language the Senate would participants for their willingness to share a bid contact Sandy Roth at the Action the treabnent of rape or incest victims." accept. Ideas, resources and experience with a Center. The two most crucial Senate votes were on At this writing, th~ Bill is in Conference younger ci vii-rights organization. the Helms' (R-N.C.), amendment restoring Committee where some kind of a com­ According to Smeal, the major last year's language, and the Packwood