Rep. Luana Stoltenberg (R-Davenport) announced Monday at a “Prayer for Life” rally at the Iowa State Capitol Building that she would introduce a bill to ban abortion completely in Iowa by defining life as starting at conception.
As the Cedar Rapids Gazette reported, Stoltenberg said she had three abortions as a teen, and the procedures left her unable to have children.
“My prayer is that Iowa will pass a life at conception bill to protect their most vulnerable and defenseless citizens,” she said. Though she hasn’t introduced a bill yet, she said she was going to.
The Gazette reported that Sen. Kevin Alons (R-Salix) called for the same thing.
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Abortion is currently legal in Iowa until 20 weeks, though the Iowa Supreme Court is considering whether to reinstate a 2018 law that would ban abortion around six weeks.
Gov. Kim Reynolds has said she wants to wait until the outcome of that case before proposing additional restrictions on reproductive health care. Though she spoke at the gathering, she didn’t propose any other restrictions.
The six-week ban was previously blocked by the Polk County District Court and a 2018 Iowa Supreme Court ruling that the Iowa Constitution protects the right to abortion.
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In June 2022—a week before the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade—the Iowa justices reversed that ruling, leading Reynolds to ask for the block to be lifted. The push failed in December last year, and Reynolds appealed to the Supreme Court.
Reynolds has championed bills that provide millions in taxypayer money to anti-abortion clinics—crisis pregnancy centers—which aren’t licensed to provide medical care and have a record of lying to the people seeking their services and delaying care.
Republicans in the House have also introduced a bill to make it a felony to “manufacture, distribute, prescribe, dispense, sell or transfer” abortion pills. The bill has not been assigned to a subcommittee yet.
Prohibiting abortion pills would also prohibit doctors from treating miscarriages, which often involve that same medication to clear the uterus or sometimes surgery.
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According to the Gazette, Reynolds said “there is ‘still more to do’ for the anti-abortion rights cause.” And the US Supreme Court “rewrote the playbook for the movement, she said.”
“The end of Roe begins a completely new phase in the battle for life. Across the country what matters now is the will of the people. Not government-appointed judges,” Reynolds said.
Democratic House Leader Jennifer Konfrst (D-Windsor Heights) said, “Politicians have no place interfering in someone else’s decisions about when to start a family. The latest plan by MAGA Republicans to ban all abortion without exception will put the lives of too many Iowans at risk. Democrats believe everyone deserves the right to make their own health care decisions, especially when it comes to reproductive care and abortion.”
Nikoel Hytrek
2/7/23
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