Citizens Against Women's Draft

P.O. BOX 13936 - INTERBAY STATION - TAMPA, FLORIDA 33611

March 22, 1974

Dear Legislator:

Shortly you will be called upon to again consider ratificaton of the so-called Equal Rights Amendment. Enclosed herewith is a letter just received from the Honorable Sam J. Ervin, Jr., United States Senator, in which he again expresses his strong opposition to the ERA and describes it as "the most destructive piece of legislation to ever pass Congress."

When the ERA was being considered in the U. S. Senate, Senator Ervin stated "if the Equal Rights Amendment is approved, I believe that the Supreme Court will reach the conclusion that the ERA annuls every existing federal and state law making any distinction between men and women however reasonable such distinction might be in particular cases, and forever robs Congress and Legislatures of the fifty states of the constitutional power to enact any such laws at any time in the future."

There are many detrimental effects of the Equal Rights Amendment, but, as the name of our organization implies, we are mainly concerned with the fact that, should the ERA pass, Congress would be locked into the position that when the call-ups under the present draft law are reinstated, young girls nineteen years old must be drafted into the military service and into combat units on exactly the same basis as young men. This fact, as you know, has been fully debated and has been admitted by the proponents of the ERA. There has been a strong effort to minimize this effect of the ERA, but the cold, hard, realistic facts are that we will have military conflicts in the future, the so-called volunteer Army will not support the manpower for such conflicts, the young girls of Florida would be drafted into the military service and into combat units, they would be taught to kill and be killed, would be wounded and taken prisoner and the United States would be the only country outside of the Communist bloc to allow the women of their country to be used in this fashion. These are facts not scare tactics, emotional arguments, or untruths. 

Please consider your position on this amendment very carefully and prayerfully. Thanking you, we are 

Sincerely yours, 

[signature]

Louis W. Putney & Jeanie T. Putney

Co-Chairmen

LWP:scw

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