Maggie DeWitte’s testimony before yesterday’s Senate subcommittee

Senate Joint Resolution 9

Iowans for LIFE’S Executive Director, Maggie DeWitte, testifies before the Senate subcommittee on SJR 9

My name is Maggie DeWitte and I am the director of Iowans for LIFE and spokesman for the Coalition of Pro-Life Leaders.  The Coalition is represented by organizations across the state including: Lutheran Family Services, Restored by Grace, Operation Outcry, Personhood Iowa, Iowa Right to Life, Family Leader, Thomas More Society, and Iowans for LIFE. 

We are united in our mission and our goals and work closely together to give a voice to those without one.  I speak to you today in support of Senate Joint Resolution 9.

This amendment’s language clarifies what is already obvious to anyone who reads our state constitution.  There is absolutely no right to abortion or funding of abortion in this document.  The unelected judges of the Iowa Supreme Court did with one pen stroke the job of the elected officials of the state of Iowa- they created law. 

What they did was wrong, and this amendment is the first step in correcting that mistake. 

The job of our senators and representatives is to make the laws; that is what the people of Iowa elect you to do.  And this is a bi-partisan issue; whether you are Republican or a Democrat, we all should agree that the judicial branch of our government is not tasked with creating laws. We must undo the damage that has already been done in the state of Iowa. 

Ultimately this is about ‘we the people’.  By passing this amendment, you are making it one step closer to allowing the people in the state of Iowa to vote on whether our constitution should be amended.  And that is where the decision should be, not with unelected judges usurping their role. 

I also think that you heard loud and clear from the people of Iowa that applauded your efforts to pass the 20-week abortion ban and the heartbeat bill: the people in the state of Iowa are pro-life and they want their laws to reflect that. 

Whether Iowa is going to be a pro-life state, or the next New York is a decision for the people of Iowa, not five unelected judges. 

What we have heard across the nation in New York and Virginia should give us here in Iowa pause.  Human life in the womb has never been so attacked as we have seen in recent weeks, the obscene notion that babies can be killed not only hours before a healthy delivery and birth, but even after. 

We have moved beyond even the horror of abortion, right into infanticide.  That is all the more reason that this amendment is so important.  We cannot let the state of Iowa take the path of New York and Virginia.  We must stand for all life.  Thank You.