20-foot inflatable IUD in Iowa draws attention to attacks on birth control

An inflatable IUD that has toured the country and been mentioned by ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’ and ‘Late Night with Seth Meyers’ stopped in Cedar Rapids and Des Moines this week.

Americans for Contraception brought their 20-foot inflatable IUD—nicknamed Freeda Womb—to Iowa this week, on the heels of Iowa’s near-total-abortion ban going into effect on July 29.

Freeda Womb took pit stops in Cedar Rapids and Des Moines on Monday and Tuesday and featured speeches by elected officials and birth control advocates.

Cedar Rapids

The first event was at Green Square Park in downtown Cedar Rapids, with speakers including State Sens. Zach Wahls (D-Coralville), and Liz Bennett (D-Dubuque), State Rep. Sami Scheetz (D-Cedar Rapids) and Allison Smith, executive director of the Family Planning Council of Iowa.

The speakers remarked that despite the sweltering heat—with temperatures nearing 95 degrees—the fight for reproductive rights would not end until contraception and abortion are legal and accessible.

Each speaker stood before the inflatable IUD to call for reproductive justice and to criticize Republican lawmakers for supporting anti-choice legislation federally.

Organizers behind Freeda Womb hope to show Americans that far-right lawmakers will not stop with abortion bans.

“What many anti-choice extremists will not say is that, when they say that they favor policies protecting life from the moment of conception, they also mean to ban contraception such as IUDs, the pill, and plan B,” Bennett said. “I have watched the religious right build the infrastructure to dismantle reproductive choice my entire life. This is not a drill.”

Wahls called out US Sen. Joni Ernst, Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa’s 1st Congressional District, and Rep. Ashley Hinson of Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District for opposing the Right to Contraception Act in June, which would have created a federal right to access contraception.

“We know that contraception and fertility treatments are under a clear and present threat and danger here in the state of Iowa,” Wahls said. “That is precisely what makes the Right to Contraception Act so important, and that is why it is so critical for every Iowan to find a leader and elected official who shares their values and supports them in upcoming election.”

Des Moines

The 20-foot IUD stood proudly in Cowles Commons in downtown Des Moines on Tuesday.

Speakers—including Iowa Rep. Megan Srinivas (D-Des Moines), Iowa Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott (D-West Des Moines), Lanon Baccam, the Democratic candidate for Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, and Allison Smith—talked about the threat to contraception access and how Republicans have failed to stand with Democrats to protect it.

“This past year, I introduced legislation to protect the right to contraception, but that bill was never given a hearing by the Republican legislature,” Trone Garriott said. “We need our elected leaders to represent the people they serve, and we know that Iowans want their right to contraception protected.”

That legislation is similar to the federal Right to Contraception Act, and would protect Iowan’s access to contraceptives by making it a right.

Baccam, who is running against anti-abortion Republican Rep. Zach Nunn, called out US Senate Republicans for blocking the federal Right to Contraception Act.

“It should be passed but, yet again, we continue to see D.C. politicians playing politics with women’s lives,” he said.

House Republicans have also pushed to eliminate Title X Family Planning Program by voting to cut funding. The 2024 Republican National Convention platform included language suggesting fetuses have a right to life, which threatens birth control because many Republicans falsely think some birth control methods are the same as abortion.

Srinivas, an infectious disease and internal medicine doctor, told the story of a patient who had a high-risk pregnancy and who needed contraception to avoid a second pregnancy she likely wouldn’t survive. After the patient’s local clinic shut down, she lost access and she needed an emergency abortion to save her life when her abusive partner got her pregnant a second time.

“Contraception is essential health care, and we need to ensure that every single person has the right to contraception that they deserve,” she said.

Correction 8/7/24: The original version of this story incorrectly identified Rep. Megan Srinivas’ specialty. The error has been corrected.