Today, voters in Missouri’s 1st Congressional District head to the polls for the Democratic primary. On the ballot is former Rep. Cori Bush, seeking a return to Congress after losing her seat in 2024. If voters give her another chance, she has made clear what her top priority would be: enshrining abortion and transgender “rights” into the U.S. Constitution.
Bush said she wants to advance the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) so that it becomes the 28th Amendment to the Constitution—which, in her view, could permanently lock abortion access and trans agendas into the nation’s foundational document.
The ERA was first introduced in 1923 and approved by both houses of Congress in 1972. Its original reported purpose was straightforward: to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex in workplaces, education and beyond. Yet the amendment never cleared the constitutional hurdle of approval by 38 states that’s required for ratification. According to the conservative legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), not only did it fail to secure the necessary state approvals, but five states that had initially ratified it later formally rescinded their support.
Even in the early 1970s, critics foresaw serious problems. The STOP ERA movement, led by Phyllis Schlafly, warned that the amendment would likely trigger “government-financed abortion, the legal dissolution of biological differences between men and women, and restrictions on women’s legal rights in matters of divorce.” Those concerns never fully faded.
Thirty-five states ratified the ERA before the extended 1982 deadline. In more recent years, despite the ERA deadline having long been expired, Nevada (2017), Illinois (2018), and Virginia (2020) added their names, prompting renewed political pressure. In February 2023, the Senate Judiciary Committee even held a hearing where proponents urged Congress to declare the amendment ratified. That effort went nowhere.
ADF argues the idea is worse today than it was half a century ago. “The ERA centers on the word ‘sex’ at a time when ideologues and activists are aggressively pushing to disassociate the term from biology and reinterpret it to include ‘gender identity,’” the group has noted.
Bush herself has been explicit about how she wants the amendment used. In a recent appearance on The Lurie Daniel Favors Show, the Democratic Socialists of America member highlighted her earlier role as a lead sponsor—alongside Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.)—of related legislation. She described the moment as historic: the first time two black women had taken the lead as the measure neared its 100-year mark.
But Bush’s comments went far beyond symbolic history. If returned to Congress, she said, she would “fight” for the ERA precisely because of what she believes it can deliver. “When we look at the protections with that, discrimination in the workplace based upon sex, in education, in housing, and then also trans rights, abortion rights, so much is up under that Equal Rights Amendment,” she stated. “So enshrining gender equality is important.”
This is consistent with her long record. Bush has repeatedly framed the ERA as a vehicle for constitutionally guaranteeing abortion access and advancing gender-identity policies. In her telling, the amendment is not merely about equal treatment under the law for men and women but a tool to lock in a much broader leftist agenda.
Missouri’s heavily Democratic 1st District means the primary winner is heavily favored in the general election. Today’s voters will decide whether they want to send Cori Bush back to Washington—and whether they support the constitutional changes she has pledged to pursue.
