CHICAGO -- Former first lady Betty Ford says she is disappointed with Nancy Reagan's stand on the Equal Rights Amendment.
Mrs. Ford, in Chicago Tuesday to campaign for passage of the ERA, also told the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board that Illinois Gov. James R. Thompson had not done enough for the ERA.
Mrs. Ford said she hoped to have time in the future to spend with the president's wife in an effort to persuade her to change her stance because support for the amendment is growing.
'A lot of women have been giving it lip service,' she said. 'Now they're giving it action and they're giving it money and giving it volunteers.
'If we had been this organized before, we wouldn't have had this much difficulty.'
Mrs. Ford met with 12 Republican legislators Tuesday to promote the amendment.
Thirty-five of the 38 states needed have ratified the ERA and Illinois is the only major industrial state that has not. However, five of the states that initially approved the amendment have rescinded ratification.
