Des Moines, IA — An Iowa House subcommittee today advanced a bill that would loosen accountability requirements for the state and third-party contractors administering the stalled MOMS program, which currently diverts $2 million in taxpayer money to anti-abortion centers.
Subcommittee members approved the bill 2-1, with Rep. Heather Matson, a Democrat, voting against it. They took the vote after hearing the personal stories of Iowans who had harmful experiences with anti-abortion centers, including using deceptive tactics and religiously-laced propaganda to pressure them into not having an abortion and providing inaccurate “medical” advice.
The state has failed twice to find a contractor to run its MOMS program, which was created in 2022 and requires a third-party administrator with at least three years of experience to administer it. HF2057 would allow the state to run the program, but also removes the three-year requirement for contractors, resulting in illegitimate organizations being eligible to receive millions of taxpayer dollars. The bill also reduces transparency for the public by removing the requirement for program administrator and subcontractor criteria to be published on the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services website.
“Anti-abortion centers are a stain on our state and put Iowans’ health in danger, yet lawmakers who want to outlaw abortion want to pump millions of taxpayer dollars into these fake clinics without accountability or transparency,” said Mazie Stilwell, Public Affairs Director for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Iowa. “We live in a state where one-third of Iowa counties are designated as maternity health care deserts. We face multiple health care crises bred from the failed policies of out of touch politicians. Lawmakers should be working on real solutions to these problems, but instead they are more interested in making it easier to deceive those seeking comprehensive care and resources. Iowans deserve better.”
Anti-abortion centers do not provide actual medical care and lack any meaningful state or federal medical oversight. Because they are not legitimate medical providers, they are not bound by data privacy laws like HIPAA. Instead, they use false and misleading tactics to lure pregnant people through their doors. They present themselves as actual health care professionals, putting vulnerable people’s health in danger. Their only goal is to prevent people from having abortions through their propaganda.
The Iowa MOMS program is based off a similar program in Texas, that was created under Kelly Garcia’s leadership. Garcia now is the director of the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services. The Texas program ballooned from $5 million a year to more than $100 million, as other core state programs went through budget cuts.
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Planned Parenthood Advocates of Iowa (PPAI) is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization with a mission of fostering and preserving a social and political climate favorable to reproductive health. To meet this mission, PPAI engages in lobbying, issues education, and supporter mobilization.
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