Des Moines, IA — As sexual assault survivors struggle to receive the health care they need, Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird today announced she is focusing her efforts on raising funds for anti-abortion centers that do not provide legitimate medical care.
The announcement comes less than a week after the Iowa Supreme Court evenly split on Gov. Kim Reynold’s request to revive a law that bans abortion at about six weeks of pregnancy, meaning a district court ruling the law unconstitutional remains in effect and abortion is still safe and legal in Iowa. Bird signed onto the lawsuit her first day in office earlier this year.
In a release today announcing Bird’s fundraising efforts, she described the anti-abortion centers as “pregnancy centers” that “offer comprehensive care to mothers, from the early stages of pregnancy to labor and delivery.” In reality, these fake women’s health centers use religiously-laced propaganda and false, deceptive tactics to dissuade people from having an abortion. They do not provide medical care and are not regulated by the state. Bird failed to define what comprehensive care means. In actual health care settings, it includes birth control, STI testing and treatment, annual exams, and cancer screenings, none of which are provided at these anti-abortion centers.
The push from Bird comes on the heels of her pausing funding for sexual assault survivors to receive emergency contraceptives and, if needed, abortion care.
“It is absolutely deplorable and cruel that Attorney General Bird is wasting taxpayer dollars to prop up anti-abortion centers while survivors of sexual assault are left in political limbo, unable to receive the critical, compassionate care they deserve because of an overloaded system and her appalling rollback of funding for their care,” said Mazie Stilwell, Public Affairs Director for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Iowa. “Iowans deserve better. Brenna Bird should be ashamed that her main focus is continuing to dismantle the high-quality, comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care that used to exist in Iowa.”
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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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