Press Release
NARAL Pro-Choice America Responds to Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds Exploiting COVID-19 Crisis to Push Anti-Choice Agenda
For Immediate Release: March 27, 2020
Contact: [email protected]
NARAL Pro-Choice America Responds to Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds Exploiting COVID-19 Crisis to Push Anti-Choice Agenda
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds today announced that she intends to block access to abortion care in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, prioritizing an extreme ideological agenda over medical expertise and science. She joins at least four other Republican anti-choice governors who have exploited the public health crisis to advance their agenda to gut reproductive freedom. Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said:
“The radical right has been working for decades to end the legal right to abortion—no matter the cost—and now they are using COVID-19 to achieve that goal.
“As we face this national emergency, we must centralize sound science and medical experts in guiding decision making and not allow the individuals driven by ideology to craft policy to meet their beliefs over public welfare.
“The medical community is clear and unified: Abortion care is time-sensitive and essential healthcare. They should be allowed to continue their work based on medicine and not arbitrary policy. The health and well-being of all Americans are at risk. Allowing ideology to trump science in this moment imperils everyone and sets a terrifying precedent as we face this national crisis.”
Iowa Republicans in the state legislature have spent this legislative session pushing a constitutional amendment (HSB577), which would roll back the right to access abortion in the state, despite the fact that a majority of Iowans believe decisions about pregnancy should be made by a woman, not politicians. And in 2018, Governor Reynolds signed into law a ban on abortion before many women even know they’re pregnant, which has since been blocked by the courts.
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NARAL Pro-Choice America and its network of state affiliates and chapters are dedicated to protecting and expanding reproductive freedom for all. For more than 50 years, NARAL has worked to guarantee that every woman has the right to make personal decisions regarding the full range of reproductive choices, including preventing unintended pregnancy, bearing healthy children, and choosing legal abortion. Since 1969, NARAL has made history, grown to over 2.5 million members, and met the moments that have defined this fight with action, power and freedom. In recognition of its work defending our constitutional right to choose, Fortune Magazine described NARAL as “one of the top 10 advocacy groups in America.”