Statement by NOW President Toni Van Pelt: RICHMOND, VA — Today’s formal ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in Virginia is a cause for celebration. This day has been a long, long time coming, and credit for this historic victory is due to the new leadership of the Virginia legislature—and the groundswell of feminist activists and voters who
Statement from NOW President Toni Van Pelt: WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Trump Administration is shredding every Obama-era equal rights protection it can find—but they’re especially fierce when it comes to promoting evangelical extremism. Our democracy depends on a secular government that doesn’t elevate any single religion, maintains the separation between church and state and protects our freedom from
Statement from NOW President Toni Van Pelt: Washington, D.C. — On January 22, 1973, the United States Supreme Court afforded Constitutional protection to women’s right to abortion care. Forty-seven years later, Roe v. Wade is still a critical victory for reproductive freedom, but it is one that is being chipped away piece by piece. In 2019 alone, according to the Guttmacher Institute, lawmakers
Statement from NOW President Toni Van Pelt: Today a mass mobilization of activist women is rising up to march for women’s rights around the country, and NOW is proud to be part of these historic actions. We turn our attention to the power women have as citizens, activists and voters to defend women’s rights and elect feminist women and allies
Statement from NOW President Toni Van Pelt: RICHMOND, VA – After a hundred-year journey full of heartbreaks and triumphs, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is poised to finally be part of the Constitution of the United States. NOW President Toni Van Pelt is standing on the floor of the Virginia’s House of Delegates today as they vote to become
Statement from NOW President Toni Van Pelt: WASHINGTON, D.C.— I was proud to join my fellow climate activists at Jane Fonda’s last Fire Drill Friday in Washington, D.C., before she heads back to L.A. We are answering the alarm sounded by Greta Thunberg and other young people who are reminding us every day that “there is no planet
Statement by NOW President Toni Van Pelt: WASHINGTON, D.C. — It’s no surprise that President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr would unleash the full force of the Department of Justice to thwart ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). In a newly released legal opinion, the Office of Legal Counsel asserts that the 1979 deadline for passage “has expired and
Statement from NOW President Toni Van Pelt: WASHINGTON, D.C. — A lawsuit by Alabama’s Attorney General to block the renewed push to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment is, as the ERA Coalition stated, “a shameful effort to keep women from gaining Constitutional equality.” This crowd of extremist state attorneys general continues to march in lockstep with
Statement from NOW President Toni Van Pelt: WASHINGTON, D.C. — The House of Representatives’ vote to impeach President Donald J. Trump is a solemn step that will test our Constitutional rule of law. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the most diverse House of Representatives in history are, in the Speaker’s words, acting as “custodians of the Constitution”
Statement from NOW President Toni Van Pelt: WASHINGTON, D.C. – Hypocrisy and misogyny have long been hallmarks of the response from professional sports organizations when it comes to sexual assault committed by their players. As the just released investigation by the USA Today Network documents, the NCAA is a repeat offender when it comes to putting profits over people.
