So Gov. Kim Reynolds has called lawmakers back to Des Moines for a special session Tuesday to approve severe restrictions on abortion. Her proclamation calls this an “extraordinary occasion.”
That’s a fitting description. What’s going to transpire Tuesday under the Golden Dome of Wisdom will be extraordinarily painful for Iowa women. They’ll lose the right to make reproductive decisions as the Republican majority enacts a sort of eminent domain over their bodies. The bill will be swiftly shoved to passage by a Republican majority where only one in five lawmakers are women.
It’s likely abortion will be banned after six weeks of pregnancy. That’s before most women know they’re pregnant. Sure, there will be exceptions for rape and incest, the life of the mother and fetal abnormalities incompatible with life, but they won’t cover many of the heartbreaking, life-threatening situations faced by pregnant Iowans.
For example, the 2018 “heartbeat bill” lawmakers appear ready to pass again Tuesday makes no exception for women facing “familial conditions.” Translation, women impregnated by an abusive spouse will be required to carry the baby to term. Mental health issues and emotional issues also don’t count.
Doctors will be left to figure out what all of this means. It’s no big deal. It’s only their license to practice medicine that’s on the line. Like other red states with draconian restrictions, we’ll see in the months and years ahead how much harm Republicans have wrought.
"We must not and cannot let down the righteous cause of defending our right to life. Our laws should reflect that we cherish every life,” said Republican Party of Iowa Co-Chair Linda Upmeyer in a news release.
“I believe the pro-life movement is the most important human rights cause of our time,” Reynolds said in her own statement.
Yeah, about those human rights and cherished lives.
This is a state where Republicans in charge refuse to expand postpartum care paid for through Medicaid from 60 days to 12 months. We have no paid family leave and no requirement for paid sick days.
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In many parts of Iowa, obstetric and gynecological care isn’t available. And effectively banning abortion isn’t going to make us a magnet for new recruits. Some who are here now will leave. It’s happened in other states.
Access to affordable child care is also unavailable in much of the state. The governor turned down $30 million in federal funds to help address the problem.
We force women to bear the burden of paying for prenatal care while the men who got them pregnant don’t pay a dime. If there’s clear evidence of who the father is, put them on the hook for doctor’s visits and other expenses.
Iowa vastly underfunds its mental health system. We apparently don’t cherish people whose lives are being destroyed while they wait for a bed in a hospital or treatment facility.
We’ve made it harder to qualify for SNAP food assistance and Medicaid. How can we say we’re cherishing kids when we take food off their tables. We haven’t raised the minimum wage in Iowa in 16 years. As of 2021, 62 percent of Iowans who work for minimum wage are women.
Speaking of human rights, If a kid grows up to be LGBTQ, we’ll deny them access to books addressing their experiences. If they’re transgender, we’ll deny them the use of bathrooms corresponding with their gender identity, bar them from receiving gender affirming health care and forcibly out them regardless of the consequences. Sure, they have a higher suicide rate then most kids, but these are not lives we cherish in Iowa.
Our leaders have decimated firearms regulation. So the child you bring into the world today may someday be hiding in their classroom, hoping a gunman doesn’t end their cherished life.
There will be no special session to address these issues.
Rather than pass legislation that would improve Iowans’ lives, our wise GOP leaders squirrel away billions of dollars to cover the budgetary cost of tax cuts primarily benefiting the wealthy. It’s the campaign donors whose lives Republicans cherish. Give big and lawmakers will make sure you have a human right to the spoils.
This is not a crusade for life. It’s an effort to exert government power over women and their bodies. One rigid view of morality will be inflicted on an entire state.
Tuesday will be an extraordinarily dark day for Iowa.
(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com
www.thegazette.com
That’s a fitting description. What’s going to transpire Tuesday under the Golden Dome of Wisdom will be extraordinarily painful for Iowa women. They’ll lose the right to make reproductive decisions as the Republican majority enacts a sort of eminent domain over their bodies. The bill will be swiftly shoved to passage by a Republican majority where only one in five lawmakers are women.
It’s likely abortion will be banned after six weeks of pregnancy. That’s before most women know they’re pregnant. Sure, there will be exceptions for rape and incest, the life of the mother and fetal abnormalities incompatible with life, but they won’t cover many of the heartbreaking, life-threatening situations faced by pregnant Iowans.
For example, the 2018 “heartbeat bill” lawmakers appear ready to pass again Tuesday makes no exception for women facing “familial conditions.” Translation, women impregnated by an abusive spouse will be required to carry the baby to term. Mental health issues and emotional issues also don’t count.
Doctors will be left to figure out what all of this means. It’s no big deal. It’s only their license to practice medicine that’s on the line. Like other red states with draconian restrictions, we’ll see in the months and years ahead how much harm Republicans have wrought.
"We must not and cannot let down the righteous cause of defending our right to life. Our laws should reflect that we cherish every life,” said Republican Party of Iowa Co-Chair Linda Upmeyer in a news release.
“I believe the pro-life movement is the most important human rights cause of our time,” Reynolds said in her own statement.
Yeah, about those human rights and cherished lives.
This is a state where Republicans in charge refuse to expand postpartum care paid for through Medicaid from 60 days to 12 months. We have no paid family leave and no requirement for paid sick days.
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In many parts of Iowa, obstetric and gynecological care isn’t available. And effectively banning abortion isn’t going to make us a magnet for new recruits. Some who are here now will leave. It’s happened in other states.
Access to affordable child care is also unavailable in much of the state. The governor turned down $30 million in federal funds to help address the problem.
We force women to bear the burden of paying for prenatal care while the men who got them pregnant don’t pay a dime. If there’s clear evidence of who the father is, put them on the hook for doctor’s visits and other expenses.
Iowa vastly underfunds its mental health system. We apparently don’t cherish people whose lives are being destroyed while they wait for a bed in a hospital or treatment facility.
We’ve made it harder to qualify for SNAP food assistance and Medicaid. How can we say we’re cherishing kids when we take food off their tables. We haven’t raised the minimum wage in Iowa in 16 years. As of 2021, 62 percent of Iowans who work for minimum wage are women.
Speaking of human rights, If a kid grows up to be LGBTQ, we’ll deny them access to books addressing their experiences. If they’re transgender, we’ll deny them the use of bathrooms corresponding with their gender identity, bar them from receiving gender affirming health care and forcibly out them regardless of the consequences. Sure, they have a higher suicide rate then most kids, but these are not lives we cherish in Iowa.
Our leaders have decimated firearms regulation. So the child you bring into the world today may someday be hiding in their classroom, hoping a gunman doesn’t end their cherished life.
There will be no special session to address these issues.
Rather than pass legislation that would improve Iowans’ lives, our wise GOP leaders squirrel away billions of dollars to cover the budgetary cost of tax cuts primarily benefiting the wealthy. It’s the campaign donors whose lives Republicans cherish. Give big and lawmakers will make sure you have a human right to the spoils.
This is not a crusade for life. It’s an effort to exert government power over women and their bodies. One rigid view of morality will be inflicted on an entire state.
Tuesday will be an extraordinarily dark day for Iowa.
(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com
Opinion: Special session will be especially harmful to Iowa
Gov. Kim Reynolds signs Senate File 359, the ‘heartbeat’ bill, in her office at the Iowa State Capitol building in …
www.thegazette.com
