Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
Tensions flared immediately and emotions ran high Monday as the Iowa Senate undertook the Senate Democrats’ version of abortion regulation, before the Senate passed their late-term abortion bill, 26-23.
Before Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal (D-Council Bluffs) could be recognized and call up Senate File 534, Sen. Kent Sorenson (R-Indianola) interrupted for point of order. When it was largely brushed off by Senate leaders, Sorenson continued to raise his voice, demanding a point of order to allow Ways and Means committee members to meet in full committee.
“I can raise my voice just as much as you can, Senator,” Sorenson said to Gronstal in an escalated tone.
Senate File 534, sponsored by Sen. Joe Bolkcom (D-Iowa City), would require facilities and clinics intending to perform late-term abortions to apply for a certificate of need, and would have to be 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,” he said.
Such hospitals with the appropriate level of neonatal care were identified as being located in Des Moines, Iowa City, Davenport and Cedar Rapids.
“As the House bill is written, there is no meaningful exception for life of the mother, no exception for rape, no exception for incest and no exception to fetal abnormalities that prevent the baby from surviving after its born,” Bolkcom said. “What (Senate File 534) does is protect the life and health of woman and the potentially viable fetus. What it does not do is put politicians in the middle of a family’s gut wrenching decision.”
Several amendments were offered that would morph Senate File 534 more into its House counterpart, including one that would criminalize abortions after 20 weeks gestation and one that would set a definition of pregnancy at the time of conception. Amendments either failed or were ruled to be none-germane.
Republicans blasted the new Senate bill, many of whom called Bolkcom out for his comment made weeks ago that Bolkcom shared Council Bluffs’ city officials desires to keep Nebraska abortion Dr. LeRoy Carhart from opening a clinic in that city, and lessen abortions.
“I share Sen. Bolkcom’s thoughts in regards to we want to prevent late term abortions in Iowa, which is done in House File 657,” Sen. Brad Zaun (R-Urbandale) said. “But right now, the way (Senate File 534) is written, any late term abortion doctor can set up in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Davenport and Iowa City. That doesn’t eliminate late term abortions.”
Zaun called the bill “a sham, it disgusts me, and we should be ashamed of ourselves.”
“The challenge in front of us with Senate File 534 is that it might feel good, but it’s not going to do a darn thing,” Sen. Mark Chelgren (R-Ottumwa) said. “It’s going to — and you can even vote on it unanimously — pass to the House like a ship in the night, and nothing is going to happen. Just like House File 657 passed like a ship in the night here.”
“The reality is,” Chelgren said, “we’re going to have an abortion clinic here, because we failed to come together to get anything done again.”
Sen. Randy Feenstra (R-Hull) said Bolkcom’s bill takes attention away from the actual abortion issue and places it on Carhart’s actual ability to open a clinic in Iowa.
“I’m concerned that we aren’t addressing abortions after 20 weeks; we’re addressing one man,” Feenstra said. “He can go anywhere in Iowa, and we’re not addressing that either.”
Though negotiations on property tax relief and budget battles, abortion has remained prominently at the front of the Legislature’s agenda throughout the session. Senate File 534 is only one of several proposals for handling abortion procedures in the state. Most abortion bills drafted and introduced this session were measures to stop Carhart from opening a surgical clinic in Council Bluffs, which also happens to be Gronstal’s hometown.
Other pieces of legislation, including House File 153 — referred to as the “Personhood Bill” — and House File 657, have attempted to ban abortions after 20 weeks gestation and prohibit Medicaid reimbursements to low-income women seeking surgical abortions. Pro-choice advocacy groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa and Planned Parenthood of the Heartland blasted such bills.
House File 657, passed in the Iowa House March 31 in a 60 to 39 vote, would mandate that life would be recognized as starting at fertilization, therefore providing lawmakers a loophole to make all abortions illegal, not only procedures performed after 20 weeks, pro-choice advocates said.
Pro-choice advocates, particularly ACLU of Iowa, called the bill “dangerous” and it would endanger the lives of women in rural areas where medical resources are not as prevalent as they are in urbanized areas.
Efforts on both sides to keep the very idea of abortion legal have been rather focused. Shortly following the petition to discharge House File 657 from committee to the Senate floor for possible debate, the Republican Party of Iowa issued robo-calls to Gronstal’s constituents in an attempt to put pressure on the Majority Leader to allow debate.
Democrats fired back by drafting their own version. Though new abortion clinics, or clinics that would start performing surgical abortions, would need to apply for a certificate of need, Senate Minority Leader Paul McKinley (R-Chariton) said last week that Bolkcom’s bill would make Iowa “the late-term abortion Mecca of the Midwest.”
Gronstal said in early May while he does not personally agree with abortion, he has “focused my efforts on making abortion less necessary, not making them more dangerous and difficult.”
Monday, Gronstal admitted, “I reel at the thought of abortion, but I also reel at the thought of telling a woman she must take to term a baby that cannot survive. No, I do not think we need another abortion clinic in Iowa or Council Bluffs, and the way this legislation is crafted, we likely won’t have one. It will be difficult to convince the health facilities council that there is a need — a desperate need — for it.”
Follow Meghan Malloy on Twitter
Do you know where to vote on Election Day? Do you know what to bring with you? Get comprehensive voter information for your state here.
Sign up for our email newsletter