Iowa voters want their leaders to listen to what they want. And what voters want is key to the policy agenda for the 2025 legislative session announced Thursday by Iowa House Democrats.
At the top of their agenda is public education, reproductive rights, lower costs for needs like child care, and legalized marijuana.
“These are issues that are reflected and supported by more than 50% of Iowans, not just Democrats, but all Iowans who want the legislature to focus on things that matter to them,” said House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, Democratic representative for Windsor Heights. “They’re tired of seeing special interests run the day. They want to be heard as people.”
Reproductive Rights
This year, the Iowa Supreme Court dissolved the block on the near-total abortion ban passed by Iowa Republicans in 2023. They also ruled that future abortion restrictions will be harder to challenge in court. The law bans abortion before most people know they’re pregnant.
Because Republicans make up the majority of representatives in the Iowa House and Senate, Democrats have to consider what Republicans would accept.
“In terms of what we can accomplish with divided government, we see opportunity to still do things, to make things a little better for women in the state,” Konfrst said.
Those proposals include legislation to clarify the exceptions in the ban—which doctors in the state have said are too vague to be workable—and laws to protect access to birth control and to infertility treatments like IVF.
Konfrst said Democrats will also reintroduce their amendment to put the fundamental right to abortion in the Iowa Constitution. They introduced it last year, but Republicans didn’t make any moves to vote on or discuss it.
Rep. Lindsay James, Democratic representative for Dubuque, emphasized the fact Iowa has the lowest number of OB-GYNs per capita in the country, and how the near-total abortion ban impacts people’s reproductive health in general.
“I had a mom who had a high-risk pregnancy who lived in a rural part of my county…who struggled to find the OB-GYN that could deal with the high risk, unique medical situation that she was in,” James said. “She basically had to move herself to Iowa City in order to find care.”
Education
Konfrst said the legislature should focus, like it used to, on the thousands of Iowans who send their children to public schools, and she’s interested in any policy that would accomplish that.
Every year, Democrats propose a funding percentage greater than the one that Republicans pass.
“We believe the solution to school funding in this state is to stop giving public money to private schools,” Konfrst said.
In 2023, Iowa Republicans passed a law to create a program that directs taxpayer money to help families pay tuition at private schools. Since its creation, the majority of families who signed up were already attending private schools.
Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds pushed for the program for years, and helped push out of office the Republican lawmakers who voted against it in the past.
Lower Costs
Konfrst said Democrats in the House will work to address wage theft, affordable housing, retirement security, and collective bargaining.
She also said they want to raise Iowa’s minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour, and help families pay for child care.
“The legislature has nipped away at the edges, and we have not done enough to truly address child care costs,” Konfrst said.
Legal Marijuana
Iowans frequently say they support legalized marijuana, but Reynolds is firmly opposed to doing so.
“The product is here,” James said. “And the most important thing we can do with that reality is to say, ‘We want to regulate it so that we can have a safe product, and we want to regulate it so that we can keep it out of the hands of kids.’”
Konfrst suggested legalizing marijuana, expanding the medical marijuana program, and starting a recreational weed program.
“Republicans are about to learn what happens when they don’t listen to Iowans,” Konfrst said. “Many of the things that they’ve passed—AEA cuts, voucher bill, and a ban on abortion in this state—are all incredibly unpopular, and they’re about to be held accountable for that.”
