After typical inaction by the Iowa Senate with Iowa Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal (D-Council Bluffs) and Government Oversight Committee Chair State Senator Tom Courtney (D-Burlington) sitting on their hands it looks like the late term abortion bill, HF 657, will be forced out of committee through a discharge petition signed by all 24 Senate Republicans, State Senator Tom Hancock (D-Epworth) and State Senator Joe Seng (D-Davenport). This move has come after enormous pressure has been placed upon the Iowa Senate and Gronstal in particular.
Even after this it is still up to the Iowa Senate Dictator Gronstalling whether or not this bill gets debated on, and he just filed a withdraw petition to counter the discharge petition. He released this statement:
I share Mayor Tom Hanahan’s opposition to making Council Bluffs the home for a new clinic that specializes in late-term abortions. I support efforts in my hometown to keep Dr. Carhart out of Council Bluffs.
Throughout my years at the Statehouse, I have focused my efforts on making abortion less necessary, not making them more dangerous and difficult. I don’t like abortion.
I also know that second trimester abortions are almost always a decision by a woman that desperately wants to be pregnant but something has gone tragically wrong with her pregnancy. Making a decision about what to do at that point is a gut wrenching decision that should be made by a woman, her family and her doctor. I believe that a woman has a right to make her own personal, private decision about abortion without the interference of politicians.
If he supported the effort to keep Carhart out, then he would support this bill. He is attempting to hide behind the “doctor and his patient” rhetoric when it is a fact that abortions that late in the pregnancy are practically never medically necessary. It is obvious that he continues to be on the side of pro-abortion special interest groups.
