The right choice is not always easy Birch Bayh, a former senator from Indiana, grew up believing that women had no problems with rights. She said her mother and grandmother always had as much say in matters as their husbands. He never realized there was an equality issue for women until he joined the Senate Constitutional Amendment Subcommittee (Bayh 2013). When faced with a problem, a person always has two choices: run away or face it head on. How an individual deals with difficult times reveals his true character. Birch Bayh was the bravest political figure of his time because he risked his political career to sponsor the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Starting in 1943, bills were produced that sought to achieve equal rights for women. A sort of equality for women was already foreseen in the Constitution. Therefore, a constitutional amendment was not needed, but rather a clarification to eliminate vagueness regarding women's constitutional rights. By 1969, nothing had been done to achieve this goal, so new efforts were initiated to define equality for women through a constitutional amendment (Birch Bayh Biography). An Equal Rights Amendment bill was introduced by Senator Eugene McCarthy in 1969, stating that “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” Bayh's Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments conducted hearings on the bill in early 1970 (ERA). The chances of the proposal passing the Senate seemed slim due to conservative senators. In fact, they proposed amendments aimed at reducing the ERA. One of the senators' proposals was the "kitchen amendment." It said: “This article will not compromise, however… halfway through the document… the fact that the Equal Rights Amendment would sponsor abortion. They showed images of aborted fetuses to give Bayh a bad public image (Smith 4). However, his entire involvement in the ERA did not seem like a political act of courage to Bayh. “I don't like to think that when you do your job as a senator it means being courageous. After all, it's your job. You have to do what is right” (Bayh 2013). That's the most important part of doing something brave: that it's right. Defending personal beliefs is rarely easy, but those who risk their political careers to seek justice should be recognized. Bayh never knew there was an equality issue for women, but right when he found out, he took action. John Wooden's quote says it best: “Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It's courage that counts" (Abrams).