In recent weeks we’ve looked at some of the exciting pro-life laws that finally passed here in Iowa.
You may recall that in November 2016, 93 of 99 Iowa counties voted against the pro-abortion presidential candidate, retired six pro-abortion senators; flipping the Iowa Senate and maintaining the pro-life House.
That election resulted in the passage of a historic amount of pro-life legislation in 2017-2018, Iowa moved from “worse than New York” to one of the most pro-life states in the nation in just two years!
Earlier this year, our pro-life legislators again wasted no time passing laws that protect the most vulnerable among us!
You’ve likely heard much about the Fetal Heartbeat bill that Governor Kim Reynolds signed into law in early May. This law rightly bans most abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected. Sued by Planned Parenthood and the ACLU, it is currently making its way through the Court.
Did you know these also passed in 2018?
A first-in-the-nation Safe Haven Law Expansion
In Iowa, the Safe Haven Act now allows parents, or someone with the parent’s authorization, to leave a baby up to 30 days old. They can leave the baby at a hospital or healthcare facility without fear of prosecution. A parent can also call 911 and relinquish the baby to a first responder. Recent news reports indicate that the 32nd baby was saved here last month since the original law was enacted in 2002. 32 babies and counting — that is remarkable!
An important ban on the trafficking of unborn baby parts
This ban is something that we have been working hard on over the past several years. When violent undercover videos emerged in 2015, they confirmed what many had known for years – the abortion industry, Planned Parenthood, in particular, is making a literal killing in profit selling baby parts following an abortion. This law ensures that this no longer can occur in Iowa.
Rejection of the Iowa Supreme Court decision allowing parents to sue a doctor for wrongful birth-wrongful life
In the Iowa Supreme Court’s shocking decision last summer, simply put, they paved the way to make our differently-abled Iowans second-class citizens.
Frankly, this legislation was not about Planned Parenthood/the abortion industry, religion or anything else. Without this bill, physicians may have opted to over-prescribe prenatal tests that can be invasive for fear of malpractice suits. Further, these tests have been inaccurate, sometimes missing birth defects or seeing one where it doesn’t exist. (See: How accurate are genetic tests? and Prenatal tests have high failure rate triggering abortions for a few examples.)
This legislation is another superb example of pro-life legislators working to secure safety for our most vulnerable citizens.
For fun, let’s review! Iowa has now passed:
- Life-saving Ultrasound Legislation
- The 20 Week Abortion Ban
- A 72-hour waiting period before an abortion*
- The defunding of abortion providers in our State Family Planning budget
- A first-in-the-nation Safe Haven Law Expansion
- An important ban on the trafficking of unborn baby parts
- The Fetal Heartbeat Bill
- And the rejection of the Iowa Supreme Court decision allowing parents to sue a doctor for wrongful birth – wrongful life.
Isn’t it amazing what a difference a few years can make? Iowa went from one of the most extremely lenient states, allowing abortions through all nine months, to an “abortion desert” in a matter of months! If this doesn’t make you excited to vote for our pro-life lawmakers this November, we don’t know what will!
In the coming days, we will be unveiling our full list of endorsements for the General Election. You can be sure I will highlight the brave women and men that saw this legislation through will on Life Right Action‘s Iowa Champions for Life Endorsement List!
