PEOPLE : More Good Advice From Dear Abby
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Native Iowan and Los Angeles resident Abigail Van Buren is lending “Dear Abby’s” support to the campaign for the Iowa Equal Rights Amendment this year. The Sioux City Central High graduate has made a 30-second TV commercial--her first political one--for the Iowa Women’s Equality Campaign appealing directly to voters to “add women to the constitution.”
If passed, Iowa will become the 16th state to put sex equality provisions into its constitution. The amendment adds the phrase “and women” to the constitution’s preamble--which reads, “all men are, by nature, free and equal and have certain inalienable rights”--and adds a prohibition against sex discrimination by state and local governments.
The Iowa Women’s Equity Campaign (the force behind the amendment) says Abby’s commercials are up against strong opposition from anti-ERA forces, such as Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum.
On screen, a reassuring Abby tells Iowans that the ERA means one thing: “Equality. So don’t let anyone mislead you.”
Abby notes that the same ballot contains another constitutional amendment: Citizens who settled their differences by dueling will no longer be barred from public office.
“Finally,” Dear Abby says dryly.
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