By Steven Allen Adams, The Parkersburg News and Sentinel
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Nearly 50 years after West Virginia ratified a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution affirming equal rights for women, the state Senate approved a resolution to rescind the state’s ratification.
The Senate adopted Senate Concurrent Resolution 44 by voice vote Friday, with several Democratic senators vocally voting no. State Sen. Donna Boley, R-Pleasants, was lead sponsor on the resolution.
SCR 44, clarifying the 1972 Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), would rescind the state’s ratification of the constitutional amendment. West Virginia lawmakers ratified the ERA on April 22, 1972. SCR states that West Virginia’s ratification was only valid until March 22, 1979.
“This resolution just clarifies that the resolution that was passed by the Legislature is no longer valid and it never did get the 38 required states that it needed in order for it to become valid,” said Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson…