The Iowa Senate Democrats passed SF 534 on a 26-23 vote. This was their answer to keep Dr. Leroy Carhart out of Iowa without having to pass a late term abortion ban that had the same language used by neighbor states in bills they recently passed. State Senator Joe Bolkcom (D-Iowa City) said he felt the Senate shouldn’t waste their time on a bill he said was “likely unconstitutional.”
Is this why these bills have yet to be challenged in court?
Let’s be clear this bill does nothing. The bill would use the Certificate of Need process to require that “a new abortion facility which performs abortions after 20 weeks post-fertilization is in close proximity to an Iowa hospital, with the appropriate level of perinatal care to protect the life or health of the woman and the fetus.”
Ok, so Leroy Carhart is kept out of Council Bluffs. Where else could he move? Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Davenport, and Iowa City…. Iowa City, isn’t that where Bolkcom is from? Oh yeah, perhaps this bill was an Iowa City Abortion Industry stimulus bill in order to provide more jobs for Iowa City residents.
Anyway, the only thing this bill accomplishes is that it provides cover to Iowa Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal (D-Council Bluffs). He can now try to say he did something about Carhart. Hopefully his constituents will see past this. All he did was shift the problem to another city and continue to allow babies past 20 weeks to be aborted in this state for any reason. I’m sure they will also try to shift the blame to House Republicans who surely won’t (they better not anyway) pass this bill.