Lawmakers Vote Down an Amendment to Bring Legitimate Health Care Providers into Program, Instead Support Increased Funding for Anti-Abortion Centers
Des Moines, IA—An Iowa House committee today advanced an omnibus bill that includes funneling $2 million in taxpayer money to anti-abortion centers, boosting a costly state program that has less than a year under its belt and no publicly released results.
Committee members voted down an amendment introduced by Rep. Heather Matson to reinstate the Iowa Family Planning Network, which boasted a 90/10 federal match in funding for affordable reproductive health care under a state family planning program that lawmakers dismantled in 2017.The defunding forced the closure of four Iowa Planned Parenthood health centers. Matson and Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell noted the correlation between forcing health centers to close and rising sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and abortion rates.
“Iowans need accessible, high-quality, affordable reproductive health care, but the legislators representing them who want to ban abortion continue their push to funnel taxpayer dollars into a costly program that funds anti-abortion centers,” said Mazie Stilwell, Director of Public Affairs for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Iowa. “These fake clinics put Iowans’ health at risk because of their deceptive tactics and lack of medical expertise. It is dangerous and unethical. Iowans deserve to know about these anti-abortion centers and the risks they pose, instead of lawmakers selling it as an alternative to comprehensive health care as they work to outlaw abortion in Iowa.”
Anti-abortion centers, commonly called crisis pregnancy centers, usually do not have medical providers on staff and are not regulated by the state. They do not provide medical care. Instead, they push false, religiously-laced propaganda on people to dissuade them from having an abortion. The House Health and Human Services committee passed the measure, HSB 91, meaning it will now go to the full House for a vote.
The hearing today comes as lawmakers who want to outlaw abortion in Iowa have introduced a ban on medication abortion, which accounts for nearly 80 percent of abortions in Iowa. Legislators have also pledged to introduce a total abortion ban.
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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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