c. religious conservatives
Religious opposition had been crucial to the outcome of the ERA debate. Schlafly's STOP ERA and Beverly LaHlaye's Concerned Women for America (founded in 1979) had attracted significant support from evangelical women, as well as from conservative Catholics and Mormons. The states that blocked the amendment included most of the South, where the evangelical movement was strongest, and three Western states (Utah, Nevada, and Arizona) where Mormons had considerable voting power. These religious conservatives saw the ERA as a broad cultural threat that went beyond the danger to homemakers. In 1972, Schlafly had also founded the Eagle Forum, a political organization that linked ERA opposition to anti-abortion activism and a host of other causes associated with the idea of family values.