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A bill for an act relating to pregnancy support including by creating the more options for maternal support program and expanding Medicaid postpartum coverage and making appropriations.(See SF 2354, SF 2381.)
Subcommittee members: Costello-CH, Edler, Jochum
Date: Wednesday, February 16, 2022
Time: 2:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Location: Room G15
Comments Submitted:
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02-15-2022
TRACY CREASON []
Crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), also called pregnancy resource centers, are nonprofit and often religiously affiliated organizations that operate with the goal of convincing people considering abortion to continue their pregnancies. Their mission is to prevent abortions by persuading women that adoption or parenting is a better option. CPCs are often branded with ambiguous names and market free pregnancyrelated services, like ultrasounds. Most staff of CPCs are volunteers, not trained clinical providers. With more than 2,500 locations across the U.S., they are more prevalent than abortion clinics but do not provide the same level of pregnancyrelated care. Many do not provide medical care at all. People seeking abortions may visit a CPC without realizing it does not provide abortion care. Unlike abortion facilities, which provide counseling on all available pregnancy options, CPCs do not provide abortion care or referrals and often provide false information about the risk of abortion. CPCs often establish themselves near legitimate healthcare organization like Planned Parenthood. This tactic confuses people and in some cases volunteers from CPCS actively recruit patients to prevent them from having abortions by promising them we will be with you all through your pregnancy and after you give birth. They make promises they never intend to keep and once a person is past the time a safe and legal abortion can be performed, the CPC is no longer interested.SSB3145 seeks to use public funds to pay for these fake clinics. Clinics that target lowincome Iowans to prevent them from access to contraception and reproductive healthcare by using misleading and medical misinformation. In addition, the bill Senator Peterson introduced offering 12 months of Medicaid after postpartum is ignored as SSB3145 mentions it will help people with Medicaid after 6 months postpartum.I strongly urge you to vote NO on SSB3145 as it throws Iowa tax payer money at FAKE clinics, clinics that lie to some of Iowas most vulnerable citizens and refuses to recognize a bill that provides better care for Iowans. I urge you to support Senator Petersons bill as well as put Iowa tax payer money towards healthcare clinics that serve Iowans, are actual healthcare clinics with real doctors that provide factual medical information. Iowans deserve access to accurate medical information and that includes reproductive healthcare.
02-16-2022
Rue Monroe []
I am opposed to Bill 3145. As someone who has received an abortion at a healthcare clinic, I am appalled at the idea of funding clinics that are not allowed to even mention abortion as an option. This bill devotes many pages to advocating for other healthcare options for pregnant individuals, while simultaneously demonizing abortion. Abortion is a legitimate option for individuals who find themselves pregnant and should always be outlined as an option for people seeking medical treatment of their own bodies. Iowans should be allowed to make their own decisions about their health and wellbeing. Five different times this bill lays out its intent to reduce abortion by funneling pregnant people to be forced to carry their pregnancy to term. This is not effective in curbing the need for abortion. Abortion is a choice for people in many circumstances; those of poverty, mental health, physical health, and more. *Since the late 1970s, states have attempted to impose abortionrelated restrictions on the use of public funds for family planning services. Many of these attacks are rooted in the flawed assertion that funds allocated for family planning services are fungible and free up other funds that providers might use to pay for abortion services. In reality, publicly supported family planning providers are generally underfunded, and funding that supports or reimburses for other reproductive health services do not transfer to abortion services.* Which is to say, funding clinics which provide a wide range of healthcare including abortion, is a far better alternative than funding those with a closed scope of healthcare options; a fact this bill blatantly flies in the face of. The bill instructs clinics receiving funds to make patients aware of adoption as an option. Adoption is not a solution to pregnancy, abortion is. Many people do not want to be pregnant. They fear the side effects of pregnancy, which are far greater than the risks associated with abortion. They worry how a pregnancy will interfere with their mental health, some of which include taking medications which are suggested to not be taken during pregnancy. *Abortion access is already very limited for many people, including Black and Brown people, lowincome individuals, LGBTQ individuals and young people, as well as those living in the South, the Plains and the Midwest.* This bill would only widen the gap of access to abortion in the state of Iowa. The decision whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term is between the pregnant person and their doctor, not the state or governmental structure. Not to mention: *The Hyde Amendment (1977), which currently forbids the use of federal funds for abortions except in cases of life endangerment, rape or incest, has guided public funding for abortions under the joint federalstate Medicaid programs for lowincome people.* Therefore, every argument against funding institutions such as Planned Parenthood, and other clinics that provide and refer to abortions are void. However, streamlining money into clinics that do not offer abortions or referrals is shortsighted. Clinics that provide abortions are healthcare and deserve state funding to serve the states constituents. Clinics that are not allowed to provide or refer to abortion providers is missing a key element in a persons choice for their body and their healthcare decisions. For the health and safety of all Iowans, this bill should not advance. *All stated statistics are verifiable via research from The Guttmacher Institute*
02-16-2022
Lori Hunt []
This bill is a sham and would divert tax dollars to coercive and deceitful non profits that don't actually provide health care, but scare women. Crisis pregnancy centers should not be funded with public dollars. Also Sen. Peterson has a bill that would expand medicaid benefits to 12 months after birth. But I'm sad to say, that bill probably will never see a subcommittee this year. I ask you respectfully to not allow this bill forward. Thank you.
02-16-2022
Gabriela Fuentes []
This bill is extremely harmful for Iowans because what it literally does is to take away people's funds to pay for fake clinics. Iowans need real doctors who can share scientificbased information, not religious beliefs. If people want to have an abortion, they need to know all their REAL options, and Planned Parenthood and Emma Goldman Clinic do this in Iowa, while protecting people's privacy, and providing quality care and education. Persuading people to not have an abortion is not politicians' business. And they are also talking about Medicaid postpartum in the same bill. These are 2 different situations and they should be studied separately. If they really care about life, they should be supporting Senator Petersen's SF2005, which plans to extend coverage to 12 month postpartum, and SSB3145 plans to cover only 6 months. Or they should support SF2006, that increases reimbursement rates for maternity care, SF2007 that requires DHS to study postpartum home visits and implement a program, SF200 that requires all licensed hospitals with labor and delivery services to adopt current best practices or safety bundles recommended by ACOG. Similar bills were introduced in previous years and they did not pass because Iowa Republicans do not really care about life, they only care about their political agenda. So please say NO TO SSB 3145. Iowa had enough with COVID fake news, and Iowans should not have fake clinics that will keep spreading more misleading information.
02-16-2022
Jamie Burch Elliott [Planned Parenthood Advocates of Iowa & Planned Parenthood North Central States]
We absolutely support extending Medicaid benefits to Iowa mothers who are six months postpartum and would be happy to support that in a separate bill. However we cannot support this bill as it is. Division I of this bill does not support women and fails to improve the health of Iowans. It is instead a way to integrate Crisis Pregnancy Centers into a costly, statefunded program with the stated goal of reducing abortions. Instead of contracting with ideological organization that mislead people and endanger their health, we should support comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care professionals who provide a full range of evidencebased counseling and quality medical care. Crisis Pregnancy Centers lack medical credentials and are known to purposely coerce and mislead women into making decisions about their health care without receiving full information about their medical options and health status. Lets be clear this is not a health care program for women in the state. When a woman has decided to have an abortion, she deserves to be able to access that care from a qualified medical provider without being tricked, judged or shamed. But Crisis Pregnancy Centers oppose abortion and judge, shame, and intentionally try to trick women out of getting the care they are seeking. We can all agree that every person deserves quality, medically accurate care when theyre pregnant or thinks they might be. Lying to people to prevent them from accessing evidencebased medical care endangers their health. Additionally, this proposed measure would funnel $2 million in Iowa taxpayer money to fund a program modeled after a similar initiative in Texas that channels money to fake womens health centers. These centers are often religiouslyaffiliated and, as previously mentioned, are known for withholding critical medical information and misleading women. SSB 3145 uses the exact same language as a similar taxpayerfunded Texas program called Alternatives to Abortion. With lax oversight, the program ballooned from $5 million to $80 million under the leadership of Iowas current Department of Human Services director Kelly Garcia, who formerly served as the Deputy Executive Commissioner of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. Since Texas shutdown of its previous family planning program, nearly 45,000 Texas women have lost access to care and another 39,000 have lost access to birth control. Meanwhile, the maternal mortality rate in Texas has doubled. This is clearly a copy and paste of Texas Alternatives to Abortion program and is being pushed by someone who worked to eliminate access to abortion in Texas. The Texas program has been reported to spend most of its resources on counseling women rather than other services such as providing parenting classes or basic material goods. It has been reported that there is virtually no government oversight of the program in Texas and no accounting of costs or health care outcomes. This is politics at its worst and Iowans deserve better.
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