kew@burdvax.UUCP (Karen Wieckert) (10/04/84)
During the ERA hearings last year, most objections to the ERA centered around two issues: abortion and the military. I believe opposing the ratification of the ERA because of the "vague" language actually boils down to views on these two issues. First, at this point, although abortion is legal, it is legal based upon grounds of the viability of the fetus, not on the unalienable rights of the mother. If the language in ERA does not explicitly deny a women's "right" to have an abortion, opponents fear that the ERA will forever allow women that right. This is an area open to interpretation, although I think it is quite straight forward (but then I do not wish to outlaw abortion). Second, men in this country "enjoy" the right of being drafted to serve in the military, and in particular are allowed to serve in "combat" positions from which women are explicitly excluded. Those who oppose the drafting of women into military service or allowing women to serve in combat positions want these prohibitions explicitly stated in the ERA. I believe, requiring "the other half of the population" to carry this burden seems quite unfair. Also, those fit for combat should be allowed to serve in combat and, on the other hand, those not fit for combat should not be forced into it, regardless of their sex. This is beside the issue, but I was in Washington last year working in the House and I attended the ERA hearings. The hearings included an entire panel of women from the military who were pilots, nurses, doctors, clerks, Coast Guard captains, etc. A major problems these women faced in their military careers was the reclassification of positions for which they were training into combat positions. For example, at one point the women who was a pilot was allowed to fly transport planes, then transport pilot was classified as combat, and then reverted back to noncombat. I'm not sure what state it is in now. In many instances, positions are classified as non-combat when few men are available to fill them. In the early 80s in particular, when many men (and women for that matter) were joining the military because of a dearth of civilian jobs, many non-combat positions were reclassified to combat, since there were plenty of men to fill them. Nonetheless, the hearings were fascinating. They made me despise a few politicians however. Ka:ren