Actress and liberal activist Alyssa Milano wants President Biden to “grow a pair of ovaries and act” to protect abortion rights before the Supreme Court issues an opinion that is likely to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that established a broad right to the procedure in 1973.
In an essay for The Daily Beast, Ms. Milano said “women are just weeks away from losing our most basic protections and our very bodily autonomy because of the cowardice of our government and a decades-long campaign by the extreme right to control and commodify us.”
“We can’t let it stand — and the good news is that we don’t have to if the president will simply grow a pair of ovaries and act,” she wrote.
A leaked draft opinion written by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. suggests the Supreme Court’s conservative majority will overturn Roe, effectively handing control of abortion rules to states.
Some states have so-called trigger laws that would impose restrictions on the procedure if and when the Supreme Court acts.
Democrats have been unable to cobble together the votes to codify Roe in federal law.
Ms. Milano argues that Mr. Biden has another path. She pointed to the Equal Rights Amendment, which says “rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”
The proposed amendment was introduced in the 1920s and passed by Congress in 1972. At least 38 state legislatures had to approve it by 1982, but the 38th state — Virginia — did not ratify it until 2020. Some states also revoked their ratifications.
“Is there anything more obviously discriminatory on account of sex than denying access to health care to only one sex? Right now, President Biden could pressure the National Archivist to publish the ERA, making it the 28th Amendment to the Constitution,” Ms. Milano wrote. “Women helped elect President Biden. Now, we’re calling in our investment. He must do everything in his power to enshrine our rights as Americans and to our own bodies in the Constitution.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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