In Iowa, the Republican drive to outlaw abortion just got real.
The court fight is over. Now Iowa will have its own horror stories about what can happen with reproductive rights shredded. A ban on abortion after roughly six weeks of pregnancy became law on Monday.
We’ll have women carrying a fetus that won’t live forced to travel out of state to get an abortion, and other women who can’t afford to travel. It’s possible, if not likely, that young girls will be forced to carry a pregnancy to term despite the risk.
We may have cases like a woman in Florida who was forced to carry a fetus that would die, was told by a hospital she had to wait and ended up delivering in her hairdressers’ bathroom. The woman lost half the blood in her body during hours of surgery.
This hall of shame goes on and on. Texas has a similar six-week abortion ban.
But don’t worry. It’s not about an embryo or a fetus having more rights than a living, breathing woman. It’s really just common sense.
“While the out-of-touch Iowa Democrats fight for abortion up until the day of birth, we will continue to fight for common sense policies ... ,” said Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley in a statement.
“I am optimistic the common-sense law passed again last year to protect life at the sound of a heartbeat with exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother will be found constitutional,” said Senate Republican leader Jack Whitver in a statement.
“Republicans are focused on common sense policies and building on their work of supporting families and providing parents with the care and access they need,” said Republican Party of Iowa spokesman Luke Wolff.
One dictionary definition of common sense is “the ability to think and behave in a reasonable way and to make good decisions.”
Iowa’s abortion ban is anything but reasonable. It wasn’t that long ago that such a law would be looked upon as recklessly extreme, even by many Republicans. Its backers have tried to dress it up as some moderate compromise, pointing to exceptions for rape, incest and a medical emergency. The only way they can make it look reasonable is by asserting, falsely, that Democrats want to abort full term babies about to be delivered.
They think distracting us from a law that’s so egregiously harmful will work.
In politics, “common sense” often means lawmakers ignored experts, relying, instead, on their flawed political instincts. They didn’t listen to doctors who warned deciding when a woman’s life is in enough danger to warrant an abortion will be difficult. They’re only gambling with their medical licenses.
Advocates pointed out many rapes are not reported within the 40-day window required in the law. Victims of incest may not seek help within a 140-day window. Lawmakers ignored predictions that an existing shortage of OB/GYN doctors would be made worse by the law. These are bad decisions.
And what will be common sense next? Laws proclaiming life begins at conception, a ban on some forms of birth control or monitoring women’s travel?
It was once common for men to control women’s bodies. Now you get the strong sense that’s a society Republican men want to recreate. We can’t let them pull us backward.
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The court fight is over. Now Iowa will have its own horror stories about what can happen with reproductive rights shredded. A ban on abortion after roughly six weeks of pregnancy became law on Monday.
We’ll have women carrying a fetus that won’t live forced to travel out of state to get an abortion, and other women who can’t afford to travel. It’s possible, if not likely, that young girls will be forced to carry a pregnancy to term despite the risk.
We may have cases like a woman in Florida who was forced to carry a fetus that would die, was told by a hospital she had to wait and ended up delivering in her hairdressers’ bathroom. The woman lost half the blood in her body during hours of surgery.
This hall of shame goes on and on. Texas has a similar six-week abortion ban.
But don’t worry. It’s not about an embryo or a fetus having more rights than a living, breathing woman. It’s really just common sense.
“While the out-of-touch Iowa Democrats fight for abortion up until the day of birth, we will continue to fight for common sense policies ... ,” said Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley in a statement.
“I am optimistic the common-sense law passed again last year to protect life at the sound of a heartbeat with exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother will be found constitutional,” said Senate Republican leader Jack Whitver in a statement.
“Republicans are focused on common sense policies and building on their work of supporting families and providing parents with the care and access they need,” said Republican Party of Iowa spokesman Luke Wolff.
One dictionary definition of common sense is “the ability to think and behave in a reasonable way and to make good decisions.”
Iowa’s abortion ban is anything but reasonable. It wasn’t that long ago that such a law would be looked upon as recklessly extreme, even by many Republicans. Its backers have tried to dress it up as some moderate compromise, pointing to exceptions for rape, incest and a medical emergency. The only way they can make it look reasonable is by asserting, falsely, that Democrats want to abort full term babies about to be delivered.
They think distracting us from a law that’s so egregiously harmful will work.
In politics, “common sense” often means lawmakers ignored experts, relying, instead, on their flawed political instincts. They didn’t listen to doctors who warned deciding when a woman’s life is in enough danger to warrant an abortion will be difficult. They’re only gambling with their medical licenses.
Advocates pointed out many rapes are not reported within the 40-day window required in the law. Victims of incest may not seek help within a 140-day window. Lawmakers ignored predictions that an existing shortage of OB/GYN doctors would be made worse by the law. These are bad decisions.
And what will be common sense next? Laws proclaiming life begins at conception, a ban on some forms of birth control or monitoring women’s travel?
It was once common for men to control women’s bodies. Now you get the strong sense that’s a society Republican men want to recreate. We can’t let them pull us backward.
Opinion: Iowa abortion ban is just ‘common sense’
FILE – Pastor Michael Shover of Christ the Redeemer Church in Pella, left, argues with Ryan Maher, of Des Moines, …
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