Phyllis Schlafly had impact on politics

Schlafly was best known for helping to defeat the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s and for founding the ultraconservative Eagle Forum political group.

Phyllis Schlafly died at 92 from cancer.

Christian conservative Phyllis Schlafly died on Monday in St. Louis.

"She served the Lord, her family, and her nation to the utmost", said a September 6 statement by American Life League president Judie Brown.

Citing Schlafly's views about homosexuals, women and immigrants - she was an outspoken opponent of same-sex marriage, abortion rights and loosening USA border restrictions - protesters said she went against the most fundamental principles for which the university stood. The ERA stalled as Schlafly and other conservatives rallied arguments and protests in the American South, Midwest and Southwest, saying the amendment would force women into the draft and out of the home.

She wrote 27 books and had tens of thousands of speaking engagements in her long campaign, the Eagle Forum said Monday.

She stuck with that theme for the next 50 years. She was also a powerful pro-life advocate.

Schlafly eventually extended the Eagle Forum's remit to including opposition to same-sex marriage, once claiming that "attacks on the definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman come from the gay lobby seeking social recognition of their lifestyle". Just a day after her death, a book detailing her support for the real estate mogul, The Conservative Case for Trump, was released.

Schlafly was politically active until the end of her life. She was also largely the foundation of the "religious right" movement in the United States, a political movement that has focused on limiting the rights of women, the LGBT community and non-Christians in the United States since its inception.

Phyllis Stewart was born August 15, 1924, in St. Louis and grew up in a home she described as Republican but not activist. "A woman should have the right to be in the home as a wife and mother".

I remember feminists wondering at the time if Schlafly had ever taken a plane ride and used one of those dreaded unisex bathrooms. In 1978, she graduated from Washington University's law school.

Mike Huckabee, who ran against Trump for this year's nomination, said Schlafly changed his life. She is survived by her six children, 16 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Described by Time magazine as "feminine but forceful" and with her hair always carefully styled, Schlafly said she attended 41 state hearings to testify against the Equal Rights Amendment.