The sweetest Valentine Republicans in the U.S. Senate could give to American women would be to announce that they will filibuster until Christmas if Senate Democrats try to ratify the offensive United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

Signed by President Jimmy Carter in 1980, and repeatedly promoted by President Bill Clinton and U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., it has wisely never been ratified.

The notion is downright ridiculous that American women (the most fortunate class of people who ever lived) should submit to a treaty that dictates uniform rules for 185 other nations, all of which treat women worse than the United States. Ratification of conventions would be craven kowtowing to radical feminists, exceeded only by the treaty's unlimited capacity for legal mischief. Article 1 purports to abolish discrimination against women "in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field." What other fields do feminists have in mind?

Article 2 reiterates that the treaty would "eliminate discrimination against women by any person, organization or enterprise," including "laws, regulations, customs and practices." Our "customs" should be none of our government's business, much less the business of the United Nations.

Article 3 would require the United States to pass new federal laws not only in political fields but also in "social, economic and cultural fields."

Article 5 would require the United States "to modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women" and to "ensure" that we are following United Nations dictates about "family education."

Article 10 would make it a responsibility of the federal government to ensure "the elimination of any stereotyped concept of the roles of men and women at all levels and in all forms of education ... by the revision of textbooks and ... teaching methods."

We certainly don't want the U.N. to revise U.S. textbooks. Remember, feminists consider it a stereotype that children should be raised by a mother and father married to each other.

Article 11 would chain us to the feminist goal that wages should be paid on subjective notions of "equal value" (i.e., the discredited notion of "comparable worth") rather than on the free market or on U.S. legal standards of equal pay for equal work. It would also require the United States to "establish" another longtime feminist goal, a federal "network of child care facilities."

Article 12 would guarantee "access to health care services, including those related to family planning," and Article 16 would require the United States to allow women "to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children." The United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women's committee in charge of compliance has interpreted this feminist jargon to mean approval of abortion, and has pressured 44 nations to legalize or increase access to abortion. Continued...