"Why didn't the ERA pass?" comments by Betty Packard Voris, self-employed lobbying dynamo

Packard-Voris was one of the women who registered with the Secretary of State to lobby for Hoosiers for the ERA (HERA). She was a Republican who, along with Mary Ann Butters and others, so acted. The primary registered democrat lobbyists were, as I recall, Molly Rucker and Virginia Dill McCarty, prominent Democrat who ran for governor, among other things. Here are Betty's comments, dated March 19, 2010:


Beth,

You are asked, "Why didn't it pass?" We have only to look at the health reform bill now in Congress; it is a reflection of what we were up against back then.

The opposition got a huge jump on us with some rather dramatic tactics led by Phyllis Schafley: It would destroy the family; We would be able to abort any or all children; It is not needed, we already have laws on the books; Men would not be able to support their families; We would raise homosexual children; Women are supposed to nurture children and protect the family; It is against God's law; etc etc etc Not unlike the death squads etc that have been floated to the sky in response to the proposed new health reform legislation. We played catch-up for 7 years with the opposition loud and vehement. The health reform legislation today has the backing and support of the president; that was not the case back then. We fought politics every day and the Republicans were in control of Congress and the presidency (Nixon and finally Ford who was not about to acquiesce to anything political at that point) and Republicans as a group were dead set against it.

We got it passed in Indiana because we lobbied for 7 long years and highlighted lots of Indiana laws (287 to be exact) which were discriminatory that got changed in the process. With the changing of those laws, we broke down some barriers that made the ERA seem less strident and made it easier for some Senators to vote for it - even if their constituents were not.

Does the Declaration have the vote? I would love to have a copy of the vote itself. I still remember Chip Edwards telling me that my blood would drip through the cracks of the State House before he would let the ERA pass.The day of the vote I went up to him and told him to skate in order to not be embarrassed. And he did skate. Would love to always have that plastered over my desk for a quiet chuckle now and then.