The 14th Amendment is supposed to guarantee citizens equal protection under the law. It has been cited numerous times since it's passage, most notably in the Civil Rights Act which ended the legal apartheid in the South and Roe v. Wade which legalized abortion. But, are we serious about equal protection under the law?

Gay rights activists and their supporters have argued that denying homosexuals the right to marry is a denial of their 14th Amendment rights. That is a drama that seems to be coming to a head right now in America.

As I have pondered the ongoing struggle over gay marriage I have often thought back to what I see as an unequal protection under the law where reproductive rights are concerned.

In the Fall of 2000 I joined a Senate Simulation game which was hosted by AOL. It was arguably the largest and oldest political simulation game on the web. I played for two years as a member of the Independent Party. During those two years I was largly content to play politics and leave the legislative writing to others. Towards the end, however, I chose to author two Bills about subjects that I felt were timely and needed to be addressed by the larger society - one dealt with alternative fuel (biodiesel), and the other dealt with reproductive rights. Both Bills ended up surviving the legislative process and were "signed" into law by the sitting Presidents when each reached the White House level of the simulation.

The game consisted of a U.S. Senate comprised of six political parties (Dem, GOP, Progressives, Conservatives, Libertarians, and Independents) and a severely truncated Executive branch which consisted of a President and Vice President elected from within the membership of the game.

Being proud of what I had accomplished, I saved the entire text of one of those bills - The Equal Reproductive Rights Act. It addresses the reproductive rights of men in a manner which was intended to approximately equal those granted to women by Roe v. Wade.

What do you think? Discuss it here