GUEST/If Democrats gain control of our Republic, how long can we keep it?

During the impeachment debate, you may have heard Speaker Nancy Pelosi reference Benjamin Franklin's quote, "A Republic, if we can keep it." She was referring to the responsibility of the House to uphold the Constitution in an attempt to legitimize the Democrats' impeachment.

If you thought it was ironic that Nancy Pelosi was talking about upholding the Constitution, you were not alone. But she and her Democratic colleagues have quickly returned to subverting the foundation of our Democracy by violating our Constitution while raising serious pro-life concerns.

This week, House Democrats passed a bill to remove the deadline for ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), a proposed constitutional amendment first introduced in 1923. Almost 50 years later, Congress passed the ERA in 1972 and set a seven-year deadline for ratification by the states. In order to amend the Constitution, two-thirds of the state legislatures, or 38 states, must approve an amendment.

When the deadline arrived in 1979, 35 states had ratified the ERA and five of those states had voted to rescind their ratification, for a net of 30 states, failing to meet the standards laid out in the Constitution for ratification of a Constitutional Amendment. Congress approved an extension of the ratification deadline to 1982, but the requisite number of states still did not adopt the Amendment in time. However, in recent years, three more states have ratified the Amendment: Nevada on March 22, 2017; Illinois on May 30, 2018; and Virginia on January 15, 2020, making the total number of states to ratify the Amendment 33, short of the required 38 states. As it stands, he ERA is almost 100 years old, over 30 years past its deadline, and it has never met the requirements to amend the Constitution.

Democrats are attempting to ignore our Constitution, the failed attempts to ratify the ERA in the past, and the fives states' decisions to rescind the Amendment by bringing up H.J. Res. 79, which is legislation that would remove the deadline for ERA ratification. Nancy Pelosi and her new Democratic Party are so out of touch with the republic that our founders envisioned that even left-leaning scholars are weighing in against the controversial move to upend our Constitution. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg recently indicated that the only way to move forward would be "starting over again collecting the necessary states to ratify it." Justice Ginsberg stated, "I would like to see a new beginning [of the ERA]. I'd like it to start over." This move by the Democrats would not pass judicial scrutiny.

One of primary concerns with the ERA is the impact it would have on the pro-life movement. If passed, it would be unconstitutional to legislate against the right for a woman to obtain an abortion, effectively nullifying all of the great work of the states to enact strong pro-life policies and protect the lives of our unborn children. Additionally, the ERA could permanently allow taxpayer-funded abortions, nullify the Hyde Amendment that prohibits federal funding for abortions, remove state restrictions on tax-payer funded abortions, eliminate the ban on partial-birth abortions, remove protections for unborn children in the third trimester of pregnancy, and legalize abortion until birth for any reason in any state throughout our nation.

So why did Democrats pass this piece of legislation that doesn't meet the ratification requirements laid out in the Constitution and expired three decades ago? If the bill is so important, why was it rushed through the House of Representatives?

What are the possible negative impacts of an amendment that was introduced almost 100 years ago? These are all important questions that the American people are asking. After months of listening to Nancy Pelosi's insincere references to Benjamin Franklin, Americans should be asking themselves, "If Democrats gained control of our republic, how long could we keep it?"

U.S. Rep. Michael Guest represents the Third Congressional District of Mississippi.