Press Release
NARAL Pro-Choice America Responds to Iowa Legislature Passing Extreme Restriction on Abortion Access
For Immediate Release: June 15, 2020
Contact: [email protected]
Late Saturday night the Iowa legislature surreptitiously passed an extreme measure that will force women to undergo a mandatory and medically unnecessary 24-hour delay prior to receiving abortion care.
In a telling sign of misplaced priorities, Republicans in the Iowa House rushed to file the waiting period amendment prior to adjourning the legislative session early Sunday morning, prompting state Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell to condemn her colleagues for “exploiting this moment of national pandemic to advance an ideological agenda that is out of touch with Iowans.”
NARAL Pro-Choice America National Communications Director Kristin Ford released the following statement:
“While the entire country grapples with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and courageous Iowans call for racial justice in the midst of a national reckoning about entrenched white supremacy, the GOP in the Iowa statehouse chose to instead focus on blocking access to abortion care. Forced waiting periods simply shame women and create more roadblocks to essential care people need. They are unnecessary and politically motivated restrictions, part of a broader agenda of control.
In the midst of an ongoing public health crisis, this measure will disproportionately hurt people with low incomes who are less likely to have the resources to overcome these barriers to accessing abortion care, such as finding transportation, taking time off of work to travel, and securing child care. This measure is the farthest thing from what Iowans need right now, and Republicans in the legislature should be ashamed of themselves.”
###
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.”