By Maggie DeWitte
Iowans for LIFE, in conjunction with the Iowa Coalition of Pro-Life Leaders, mailed the following letter to President Trump:
***
July 16th, 2020
The President of the United States
THE WHITE HOUSE
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
The Iowa Coalition of Pro-Life leaders needs your immediate assistance. A pilot project called TelAbortion was recently launched in Iowa, along with a dozen other states, which allows Iowa women to obtain abortion pills via the mail.
We are concerned that this program poses grave risk to Iowa women and especially teen girls.
RU-486 (mifepristone and misoprostol) is a dangerous medication that kills unborn children in the womb and harms women both physically and emotionally. The idea that girls and women across Iowa could receive this dangerous drug through the mail without ever seeing a physician in person causes grave concern among Iowa parents and grandparents and religious and pro-life leaders. We are especially concerned that school-aged teen girls could obtain these abortion pills without a parent’s knowledge.
The Food and Drug Administration hasn’t allowed RU-486 to be distributed via the mail in the past. The side effects are profound, according to their website. However, the FDA under the guidance of the previous administration made an exception, allowing the New York based Gynuity Health Projects to initiate a study. This study has now reached Iowa.
Iowa had enjoyed a two decade decline in human abortion, until the advent of chemical abortions. The uptick we are now experiencing will only increase with the availability of mail order abortions.
You have been the most pro-life president in history. You recognize that humanity is a scientific fact at the instant of fertilization.
Mr. President, can you ask the FDA to withdraw support from this reckless study? It is unconscionable that any woman could take this deadly medication without seeing a physician in person.
Respectfully,
Maggie DeWitte, Chairperson
THE IOWA COALITION of PRO-LIFE LEADERS
The drumbeat to deregulate the abortion pill, RU-486, ticked up during the Obama administration. In 2016, the Food and Drug administration granted Gynuity Health Projects permission to initiate a study to advance abortion services using mail order abortion pills (mifepristone and misoprostol).
Iowans for LIFE is quick to note the disconnect between Gynuity Health Projects’ name and their mission. dictionary.com defines health as “freedom from disease or ailment.” Gynuity’s Iowa ‘project’ treats fertility, pregnancy, and healthy human life as a disease, if is unwanted. It has nothing to do with health.
The Emma Goldman Clinic in Iowa City will administer the program, which consists of three parts:
- A patient calls a clinic staffer to determine if they qualify, which means they are in the first ten weeks of their pregnancy.
- If yes, they must get an ultrasound at the nearest health clinic and provide it to the Goldman Clinic abortionist.
- The patient has an appointment via video with the Goldman abortionist, who sends the pills via U.S. Postal Service after the patient pays a tidy $750 fee.
The project appalls Iowans for LIFE’s executive director, Maggie DeWitte:
“The mail order abortion pill program is shocking. Ru-486 is a dangerous medication that kills unborn children in the womb and harms women both physically and emotionally. The idea that girls and women across Iowa could receive this dangerous drug through the mail without ever seeing a physician in person is appalling.”
Mail order abortion pills put minors at risk
“And, what about minor girls? Will 14 year olds be able to obtain this drug without their parents even knowing about it?
Women who have taken this drug report back the enormous physical implications, including an extreme loss of blood and severe cramping. Many thought they would die. This is done in their home, alone, often in their bathroom. The isolation these women feel is something not easily dealt with. They are faced with the harsh reality of what they did when they see their dead baby in a toilet. Because, let’s be clear- that is the reality of medical abortion through the mail.”
The pro-life movement has been tremendously effective at lowering demand for abortion and closing abortion mills. Here in Iowa, Planned Parenthood has been forced to scale back from 24 abortion clinics in 2012 to nine today.
Innovative ways to kill
As Ms. DeWitte explained, fewer doctors are willing to perform surgical abortions, thus the need for mail order abortion pills:
“According to Dr. Donna Harrison, President of American Association of Pro-Life OB/GYN’s, there are some 86 sites from whom you can purchase RU-486 pills. While brick and mortar abortion centers are closing, and there are fewer doctors willing to perform abortions, the abortion industry has found new and innovative ways to kill unborn children and harm women and girls.”
This project allows Iowa abortionists to leverage their deadly trade and kill more babies with a couple of pills. They are able to do it at a much higher profit margin, since they no longer need brick and mortar clinics, and yet they charge the same for a medical abortion as they do a surgical one.
What awaits women who succumb to the easy lure of mail order abortion pills? Pro-life author, Abby Johnson, described her experience like this:
“It looked like I was sitting in the middle of a crime scene.”
Iowans for LIFE honors the legacy of the 4th of July. Two-hundred and forty-four years may have passed since the Founders signed the Declaration of Independence, but the issues at stake remain relevant and contested.
The pro-life movement embraces Thomas Jefferson’s soaring rhetoric with relish, for a single sentence provides the moral underpinnings to the pro-life movement. It is our nation’s Creed:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
What makes America unique
The great English wit and intellect, G.K. Chesterton said it is this Creed that makes American unique:
“America is the only nation in the world that is founded on a creed. That creed is set forth with dogmatic and even theological lucidity in the Declaration of Independence; perhaps the only piece of practical politics that is also theoretical politics and also great literature. It enunciates that all men are equal in their claim to justice, that governments exist to give them that justice, and that their authority is for that reason just.”
Human abortion is an obscene rebuke of our majestic Creed in much the same way that human slavery was in the early years of our Republic. Ironically, the two parties who fought over the issue of slavery continue to fight over the issue of slavery today, but in a different form.
Modern slavery
The abolitionists of yesteryear are the pro-lifers of today; while the supporters of slavery yesteryear are the supporters of the slavery of abortion today.
The first president of the pro-life party issued an Emancipation Proclamation to free the slaves. This president labored tirelessly to pass the 13th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, which once and for all abolished human slavery. Watch this clip from the iconic film, “Lincoln,” where a member of the Slavery/Abortion party asserts that the 13th Amendment should never be passed because:
“Congress must never declare equal those whom God created unequal.”
To this day, his party retains this repugnant belief as it relates to our unborn brothers and sisters.
Watch this dramatic reenactment from “Lincoln”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd-_ygxZoeU
The Amendment passed. Every member of Abolitionist/Pro-Life party voted for it in the Senate; only two of the Slavery/Abortion party did. In the House, all (86) of the Abolitionist/Pro-Life party voted for the Amendment compared to but 14 of the Slavery/Abortion party.
While Congress battled over the abolition of slavery in our Constitution, General Ulysses S. Grant, a member of the Abolitionist/Pro-Life Party, led the war effort to free the slaves. When the bloody conflict had ended, over 600,000 men lay dead, the slaves freed.
And for his efforts, President Lincoln took a bullet in the brain.
We’re a work in progress
The preamble of our Constitution doesn’t pretend ours is an unblemished nation. Rather, it humbly aspires to create a “more perfect union”:
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”
We’re a work in progress, always striving to create a more perfect union, which means all must be allowed to enjoy the blessings of liberties, not just select groups determined by a cadre of the elite. As Reverend Martin Luther King so eloquently stated,
“When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.”
Human abortion reneges on this promissory note today, just as slavery did yesterday.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964
Our quest for a more perfect union continued unabated for another century, reaching a climax with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, passed with bipartisan support. Seventy-six percent of the Abolitionist/Pro-Life Party voted in favor of the bill in the House, and 81% in the Senate.
Sixty percent of the Slavery/Abortion party voted for the bill in the House and 68% in the Senate.
In this season of unrest, when Lincoln and Grant are once again under attack, Iowans for LIFE honors their great legacy, a legacy defined by their commitment to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
Knowing their repugnance of human slavery, we have no doubt they’d be on the side of the angels in today’s political battles.
Martin Luther King shows us the way
No nation every achieves perfection. But America made a vow to continue to pursue a more perfect union. How do we do this? How do we fight back against an entire political party and a powerful media, entertainment, and academic industrial complex all aligned against us? Reverend King shows us the timeless path:
“But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.”
Happy Independence Day. And may God Bless America!
As expected, Mitchell E. Turner, District Court Judge for the Sixth Judicial District in Iowa, granted an injunction to the 24 Hour Bill which was scheduled to go into force today.
Planned Parenthood and the ACLU filed a lawsuit to block the bill before Governor Reynolds even had a chance to sign it into law.
The bill is on hold as it grinds through a legal process to a dubious conclusion. Judge Turner’s injunction reveals the shocking overreach of the Iowa Supreme Court who discovered a “fundamental right” to an abortion in the Iowa Constitution in 2018.
Over half of the states in this country have AT LEAST 24 hour waiting periods before an abortion can be performed. As reasonable as this restriction is, Judge Turner nonetheless allowed the injunction.
Even more, Iowa law requires waiting periods before other life-changing events, such as adoption and marriage, and even non life-changing events, such as the purchase of a vacuum cleaner.
Surely a life-or-death decision like human abortion deserves at least the same level of discernment as the purchase of a Dyson V11 Torque Drive.
It is unconscionable that unelected, extremist Iowa Supreme Court judges have so undermined the pro-life impulse of Iowa voters. We need the Protect Life Amendment more than ever.
Women and men often regret the decision to abort their baby. That’s why Iowa lawmakers passed a bill which requires a 24 hour waiting period before getting an abortion.
As expected, Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit to block the legislation and seeks a temporary injunction to delay it from going into effect on July 1st. Erin Davison-Rippey, Iowa Executive Director of Planned Parenthood North Central States, asserts:
“This legislation is billed as a 24-hour waiting period law, but make no mistake—in many cases, it will delay a person’s ability to get an abortion by weeks.”
Post-abortive expert supports the law
And yet one of Iowa’s top post-abortive experts emphasized the necessity of this law. Laura Limmex is Executive Director of Restored By Grace Ministries. She explained:
“Ending a pregnancy is a life-changing decision that needs contemplation. In the state of Iowa we have three days in which to change our minds on major purchases, shouldn’t we allow women 24 hours to contemplate taking the life of their child?
Many women and men regret their abortion decisions. Many struggle emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually as a result of abortion. For some, the child they aborted is the only child they will ever conceive.”
Many women are pressured into an abortion
What Planned Parenthood refuses to acknowledge is that a significant percentage of women were pressured to have an abortion, as Laura Limmex explains:
“The 24 hour law will save lives. I have heard more than one woman tell me they felt pressured to make a decision that day. Some were forced to swallow the first set of their chemical abortion pills in front of a clinician. They walked away regretting it, not knowing there was ever an option for reversal. 24 hours will give men and women and opportunity to review material, seek out second opinions as well as other options.”
The 24 hour waiting period is in the hands of a judge
Let us pray for the judge who will rule on this lawsuit and for the women, men, and their babies who will be affected by the outcome.
[Iowans for LIFE is a fixture at the Capital during the legislation session promoting pro-life legislation. We have a vibrant, daily presence on social media; a dynamic website; and a comprehensive YouTube channel. We need your help to maintain & expand this aggressive educational, statewide outreach. Donate today to the most important cause there is: LIFE.]
By Lois Brookhart
Lois Brookhart
The article by Sister Anne Marie Walsh, SOLT, is a powerful, thoroughly written message supported with excellent facts. I have been trying to share it with everyone I know, friends and family alike. I am sick at heart at what I see happening in my country. Even though I believe it is all diabolical, I am convinced our Father in heaven is allowing it to bring us back to Him, including those who appear to be our enemies.
Pro-lifers mocked
This evening both at work and on my way home I witnessed the so called group, Black Lives Matter, mocking peaceful Pro-life demonstrations.
First, I saw a police escorted motorcade headed west on Hickman Road, honking their horns and shouting and waving the signs and placards and signs that read: “Black Lives Matter”, as they passed by Divine Treasures about 6:00 pm.
On my way home I passed a small group of young, white women, some with rainbow colored hair, some tattooed waving placards that read: Witches for Black Lives Matters. One young woman was on the middle island where I was turning to go west on Douglas. Some passerby’s honked and showed signs of support.
“Shame on you!”
I was sickened at heart and to my stomach to think these wounded lost children of God had the audacity to think they represented me, and my people. I became so angry I wanted to retaliate and say to them: “Shame on you!”
I came home and wept bitterly.
My God, why have you abandoned me?
For a brief moment I felt that God had abandoned us, my people and my country. The only country that I’ve ever known and loved. The land of liberty, and home of the brave. The land of freedom and blessed by God. The land where the Stars and Stripes, i.e. the American flag and our statues of American heroes were honored and respected. A land where freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly were honored and respected as constitutional rights. A land where there was a balance of power between the judicial, legislative and presidential branches of government.
The land of the American Dream.
It breaks my heart to know that my people are being used to destroy it and them. I no longer recognize my country. I fear It is in grave danger and I feel helpless to stop It.
Instead I see evil and destructive rioting and looting, censorship, etc taking over everyday. And my people being used and played by powerful people (Planned Parenthood, BLM, and the like) who are in truth using its power to eliminate my people from the human race and too many of us have fallen for the lie.
God is our hope
Yes, I am sick at heart, but I am not without hope. Because God is our hope, and he is my loving Father and I trust and know that he has our back, if we would ALL but return to Him.
In the end we know HE wins.
As for these poor lost children of God, whom I witnessed tonight, seeking to be seen and heard so that they can feel important, they are ignorant of the fact that the One they truly seek is God. But they too are being deceived and steered by the evil one who seeks to divide and conquer.
Therefore, I will offer all my prayers and fasting for their deliverance, conversion and salvation. And that His light will fall on them.
I pray God grant me the grace to love them as you love us all, so that we too might grow in right relationship with you and reach the land of glory that you have promised us from of old.
[Thanks to Lois Brookhart for permission to publish this essay. She is the owner of the Divine Treasures Catholic Book and Gift Resource.]
By Sister Anne Marie Walsh
Sister Anne Marie Walsh
I feel compelled to say something after seeing, in recent days, some of the things that have been posted about pro-life, racism, the death penalty, etc. Please don’t quote Pope Francis to me, or any other prelate for that matter. I know exactly what they have said, and though much of it is well intentioned (let’s give the benefit of the doubt) in relationship to a number of “life” issues, much of it is also very misleading.
First off, there is NO moral equivalency between the deaths of 60 million INNOCENT babies, the overwhelming majority of whom are minority babies, and the 1518 people on death row who have been executed since 1976, close to the time when abortion was legalized in this country.
Sixty million vs. 1518!
Of those on death row and executed in this period of time, 8.5% were Hispanic, 34.1% were black, 55.8% were white, and 1.6% were other. That equals 847 Whites, 517 Blacks, 129 Hispanics and 25 others. Certain states seem to have some clear issues with race bias. But the overall national average is as stated. The race of the victims is surprising as well. Seventy-six percent of the victims were white, 15% black, 7% Hispanic and 2% other. Think about that for a bit.
Pro-lifers lead the fight against racism
Now think about the numbers for abortion, because pro-lifers are fighting racism more deeply than almost any other group out there, unless you don’t think the slaughter of black babies in the womb is racist enough to qualify. More black lives are lost through abortion than all other causes of death combined. By far, the highest percentage of aborted babies are black and then Hispanic and then white. Yes, all these issues are of one piece. But opposition to pro-lifers on the basis of a perceived obsession that ignores race, is a master lie that comes from the pits of hell, and is easily recognized by sane minds sanctified in the Truth. If you can’t see it then you need to examine your own conscience!
Look at the evidence [source: The Life Institute]:
Over 50 million abortions have taken place in the US since 1973.[xvii]
In the US, less than 1 percent of abortions occur because of rape or incest.[xviii]
More African American babies have been killed by abortions since 1973 than the total number of African American deaths from AIDS, violent crimes, accidents, cancer and heart disease combined.
Approximate number of African American deaths since 1973:
Abortion: 13+ Million
Heart Disease: 2.26 Million
Cancer: 1.64 Million
Accidents: 307,723
Violent Crimes: 306,313
AIDS: 203,649 [xix]
Since 1973, abortion has reduced the black population in the US by over 25%.[xx]
In the US, over 90% of Down Syndrome babies are aborted.[xxi] (Who cares about the discrimination going on here?)
The abortion industry in America each year in the U.S. brings in approximately $831 million through their abortion services alone.[xxii]
In the world, a baby in the womb dies every 2 seconds. Every time your heart beats, a baby dies. (Info taken from The Life Institute).
A false narrative
I, emphatically reject the suggestion that anyone who is pro-life, anti-abortion, is obsessed with one issue and unconcerned about the other life issues. It is utter nonsense! It is simply a repetition of an old, and false narrative, and it is distressing to see anyone in leadership parrot such nonsense. Such labeling and generalizations betray very real bias of another sort which has dark origins, very dark indeed!
While I don’t support the death penalty, I cannot expend the bulk of my energy on it as an issue when millions are perishing on another front, and future generations are being wiped out. So, Please don’t tell me you can vote for a pro-abort politician because at least they are anti death penalty. There is absolutely no equal comparison here.
A different analogy
Let’s use a different analogy to make the point crystal clear. We’re in a war. A fierce, bloody, ugly, smoke from hell war against life. JPII said life is always at the center of the battle between good and evil. And where are the front lines today? The front lines always are found where there is direct engagement with the enemy and the loss of life is higher than anywhere else. There is no General or Commander in the history of the World who ever believed you could win a war by staying away from the front lines and fighting the small battles behind the lines where the enemy may have infiltrated in small numbers.
The seamless garment argument (you must attack all issues, and especially the lesser ones at once, or you are not really pro life and shouldn’t therefore do anything) is an example of this kind of appalling thinking and impotent strategy that believes you can win the war without ever going to the frontlines where all the power of the enemy is wreaking the most destruction and will continue to do so unless someone feels an urgency to stop it.
Enemies do not magically go away.
They conquer completely in the end, if you don’t fight back and fight back where the war is especially fierce. It is ludicrous to think anyone could consider this a legitimate strategy in warfare and no one who wanted to win a war would appoint that kind of commander.
Is racism a problem? Perhaps. But, it is not what it was in the past. Progress has been made. Don’t take my word for it. Read Shelby Steele, and Thomas Sowell, or listen to some of the other black leaders out there who read what’s really going on and are trying to get your attention in order to help you think beyond the sound bites and manipulated media clips that pull your strings just as really as if you were puppets! I, for one, reject the notion that I am racist simply because I’m white. And I reject the notion that all cops are bad because one did something horrific. Identity politics leads to the insanity we are currently seeing. Stop playing their game.
You are being played.
If you are a student of history, you will recognize the same tactics used in igniting the French Revolution and the rivers of blood and destruction and desecration that followed. Outsiders came in to stir up the people against law and order, and to incite them to riot. Many, many, many lies were told for that purpose. And people believed them without thinking twice.
My own theory is that the emphasis upon the smaller battles and the discrediting of those who have the courage to fight on the frontlines when it comes to abortion, comes from cowardice and a convicted conscience. We have a nation, and particularly a Church, of deserters, deserters in the battle for life on the frontlines which should have been taken back decades ago! And we have, and will pay a price that is immeasurable. The consequences of our sin will recoil back on us, and have already begun to do so. When it gets worse, and it will, remember why! We let the enemy win!
Dear Pro-Life Supporters: I won’t pull any punches. This last weekend of the legislative was intense. Let me get the bad news out of the way.
The Protect Life Amendment failed. Iowans for LIFE and the Iowa Coalition of Pro-Life Leaders worked overtime this weekend in an attempt to budge a few recalcitrant legislators to no avail. So although the amendment sailed through the Senate, we just didn’t have the votes in the House to bring it to a vote.
But I have good news to report as well. The “Alfie Evans” bill passed. It protects children from being removed from life support over their parents’ objection. Years of hard work bore fruit to get this bill to the finish line.
More good news: we got an amendment added to the bill which requires a 24 hour consideration period before a woman can have an abortion. This sets up a potential legal challenge to the Iowa Supreme court’s notorious 2018 ruling which discovered a “fundamental right” to abortion in our Constitution. Since that ruling, Governor Reynolds has appointed four new justices, so we’re hopeful of a better outcome next time.
Nonetheless, we are disappointed that we couldn’t get the Protect Life Amendment through. We will be meeting with the Pro-Life Coalition in the next couple of days to begin honing our pro-life strategy for the next session.
I will keep you up to date on what is going on. In the meantime, keep praying.
God bless the unborn.
Maggie DeWitte
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
The clock approaches midnight and House Republicans still don’t have the votes to pass the Protect Life Amendment.
Keep in mind that Republicans have a 53 to 47 advantage.
Keep in mind that that the Republican platform proclaims:
“The Right to Life shall be understood to include all people from conception to natural death.”
Keep in mind that if this amendment doesn’t pass, restrictions on late-term abortions, parental notification before an abortion by a child, and taxpayer funding of abortions are all at risk.
Iowans need this constitutional amendment to avoid turning the Hawkeye State into an abortion mecca.
Iowans for LIFE asks you to contact your representative in the Iowa House immediately to support this amendment which simply reverts the Iowa Constitution to its original abortion-neutral status.
This amendment returns power to the people to decide to what extent to regulate human abortion.
Don’t wait ’til Monday. Contact your representative immediately: https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislators/house
Is it possible Natalie Fixmer-Oraiz and Lina-Maria Murillo haven’t read the wording of the Protect Life Amendment? I pose the question after reading their uninformed piece, “An abortion ban? Now? Are you serious, Iowa GOP?”
Constitutional neutrality on abortion
The proposed amendment simply returns the Iowa Constitution to the abortion-neutral status it held prior to a 2018 Iowa Supreme Court decision. Let’s clear the air by simply reading the two sentences that comprise the Amendment:
“To defend the dignity of all human life, and to protect mothers and unborn children from efforts to expand abortion even to the day of birth, we the people of Iowa declare: Nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to recognize, grant, or secure a right to abortion or require the public funding of it.”
In other words, it returns the regulation of human abortion to the People’s elected representatives in our state legislature, as explicitly stated in the Roe v Wade decision, to which Mss. Fixmer-Oraiz and Murillo refer. Let’s revisit Roe’s language:
[The state] “has legitimate interests in protecting both the pregnant woman’s health and the potentiality of human life, each of which interests grows and reaches a “compelling” point at various stages of the woman’s approach to term.”
An ironic smear
The writers, whom the piece identify as scholars of reproductive history, veered beyond their area of expertise by suggesting pro-lifers are tainted by ‘white supremacy,’ a particularly ironic smear in light of the carnage wrought on the African-American community by abortion. Although blacks represent but 13% of our nation’s population, they endure 36% of all abortions.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have been in the news a lot lately. They tell us that human abortion kills more black human beings than HIV, murder, diabetes, accident, cancer, and heart disease … combined.
In other words, human abortion is a human rights issue when one group is so disproportionally affected, as seen by a declining birth rate below replacement levels for black America.
As black pastor and founder of Black genocide.org., Clenard Childress, Jr., warned:
So, for the sake of honesty, let’s drop the disingenuous ‘white racism’ canard from the conversation when discussing the honorable pro-life movement.
The two scholars of reproductive health history make a point in acknowledging the rare violence perpetrated in the name of the pro-life cause. In fact, eleven people were killed in abortion clinics between 1993 and 2015 by unhinged individuals, whose actions were clearly not ‘pro-life.’ The pro-life movement is a peaceful movement. We renounce violence.
Human abortion is founded on violence
By contrast, human abortion is founded on violence. Sixty million human beings have been aborted since Roe. The procedure is gruesome; the goal is the death of a unique human life who happens to live in a womb.
The CDC reports that 5597 abortions took place in the U.S. in 2015 when the unborn person was 21 weeks or older in the womb. Iowa law now protects these viable, unborn human beings, but without the Protect Life Amendment, this protection will be jeopardized.
And for the record, data from the Centers for Disease Control identify 362 deaths to babies that initially survived an abortion for the ten year period beginning in 2001, before being terminated or left to die. Talk about violence.
The Iowa legislature can juggle more than one ball at a time
Finally, Mss. Fixmer-Oraiz and Murillo are critical of the timing of the Protect Life Amendment debate, suggesting that for the first time in our state’s history, the Iowa legislature can’t deal with more than one issue at a time. Surely they understand that this process began last year before this season of unrest? Surely they understand that a pandemic suspended the legislative session until the past week? Yes, surely they do.
As things stand right now, only 13 states in the union have a lower abortion rate than Iowa. Without the Protect Life Amendment, that will change dramatically over time. The Protect Life Amendment creates Constitutional neutrality, allowing our elected representatives to regulate human abortion according to the desires of Iowans.
[The Iowa Senate has passed the Protect Life Amendment. The Iowa House has reconvened and is debating the language. The Amendment needs to pass both houses in consecutive legislative sessions, and then a vote of the people to amend the Iowa Constitution.]