The Equal Rights Amendment will finally clear the legal avenues to achieve gender pay equity for the entire nation. The gravity being, that of thirty-eight states required to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution, and after half a century of activism in the face of gridlock, Virginia could be the deciding vote.

 

In Virginia, the racial and gender pay gap is the effect of pervasive racism and sexism in the job market without adequate mechanisms of law to bring disparity to justice in the courts. In the next era of Democratic leadership in Virginia, we will ratify the ERA and achieve equal pay for all.

 

As a medical professional, I know that reproductive and contraceptive care is healthcare. As states across the nation crack down on the constitutional right to choose, Virginia should lead the way in affordable and accessible abortion and other vital reproductive care. That means permanently codifying Roe v. Wade into law in Virginia to ensure that this fundamental right is not infringed. It also means working to eventually cover the cost of essential reproductive care under medicaid as well as private insurance.