Meeting Public Comments

Sandy Wilson [Citizen Engagement]

Citizen Engagement supports HSB 255, however, we urge the legislature to remove exceptions and declare life at conception.

Mary Jobst []

I support legislation to protect preborn babies from abortion which is INTENTIONALLY KILLING them. The Constitution (including the Bill of Rights) GRANTS NO rights. They only enumerate rights which humans have by nature and restrict the government from infringing on those rights. Any child who has life, born or unborn, has the right to have that life protected. The government cannot take away that right because the government didn't grant it. What the government can take away is active protection of that life.It is an irrefutable fact that human life begins at conception. At that moment, a unique, whole, human being comes into existence. Size, level of development, environment, and degree of dependency are irrelevant to the innate value of human beings. There is never a medical reason to INTENTIONALLY KILL the preborn baby by abortion to save the life of the mother. In those situations it may be medically necessary to separate the baby from the mother. The baby may be too premature to survive and can be allowed to die with dignity naturally in the arms of loving parents in those rare heartbreaking situations. Killing a preborn baby conceived by rape is compounding one crime with another by giving the death penalty to an innocent victim and turning the mother from a victim into a killer of her own child. The time is now.do the right thing. Protect life!

Jake Onken []

Iowa stands for life! A heartbeat bill is the first step to stopping the madness called "abortion" (but in reality is child sacrifice due to an unwillingness to make individual sacrifices). No matter how many babies are killed, the void will never be filled, Iowa is a conservative beakon of hope for the rest of the world, this bill will continue to add to that mission call.

Curt Hancock []

You have been elected to protect our Godgiven rights, first of which is life. Please do that now. Support the heartbeat bill. Sincerely, Curt HancockMt. Vernon, Ia.

Sheri Barnes []

On August 30, 2021, Gov Reynolds office issued a statement in response to a letter issued by the Biden Administration. In part, her statement was with respect to Iowa opening schools in the midst of COVID. Part of that statement reads I believe and trust in Iowans to make the best healthcare decisions for themselves and their families. Our governor and Iowas democratically elected legislators need to follow suit with HS 255 and SS1223 and let women and their physicians make their own reproductive decisions. Please vote no to the two study bills.

Ernie Rudolph []

The science is clear. Life begins at conception. Killing a living person is not healthcare.

Sandy Wilson []

I urge you to support the legislation known as the Heartbeat Bill, however, I ask you to remove any and all exceptions and declare life at conception. With Republican super majorities in both chambers and the governors office, I dont see a need for incrementalism in pursuit of any of our agenda to protect all life and it would benefit voters to know which legislators are standing in the way of this goal. It is wrong for our candidates to run as proLife only to not support protecting all life it when push comes to shove and voters should know who they are. In the event the majority is unable to agree to a life at conception bill, this is a step in the right direction, however God will still be unhappy with us and we will not escape his wrath. Isaiah 31:2 says we are not to aid and abet evil and he will amass all power against us when we do. The Heartbeat bill continues in the same vein allowing the destruction of unborn images of God.

Isaac Tessmer []

Please support this legislation. Protecting the lives of the defenseless is a fundamental principle of any moral society.

Teresa Baustian [citizen]

I am writing in opposition to this bill. I truly do not understand how we have arrived at the 21st century and are proposing to take away the right of half the population of the state to exercise autonomy over their own bodies and to make their own medical (as well as financial, family and career) decisions. The nation has had 50 years to consider how to preserve the agency of women to make these decisions even as they might empower more and more women to be able to choose to maintain an unplanned pregnancy. Legislators could relieve the financial distress by providing that prenatal appointments and maternity leave are paid time off. Legislation could have protected the job security of women who need accommodations during pregnancy. Legislation could have addressed the lack of quality affordable child care. It's truly not difficult to fashion policies that both preserved freedom and enable women to choose to maintain a pregnancy. It's shameful that such policies do not exist in Iowa.

Adam Campbell []

This is terrible for women and terrible for Iowans. Instead of banning abortions, keep your extreme religious opinions out of government and focus on things that will help like sex education and funding Planned Parenthood

Jeanne Lyle []

As a Christian and an American, I stongly oppose stripping women of their rights to their own healthcare. Let's start helping the people who already exist to live a good life with sustainable pay, childcare, education and healthcare.

Greg Rice []

Abortion is a common experience. This bill infringes upon a basic freedom in choice and autonomy in healthcare

Amy Crouch []

Please dont limit reproductive rights. That should be a decision made between a person and their physician.

Michele Grinnell []

Do not impose a 6 week ban.

Ellen Craig []

Please vote no. Women should have the right to make their own decisions.

Rebecca Bryan [Citizen of Iowa]

I realize that you don't care what I, or the majority of Iowans, think about this bill. I realize you don't care how dishonest the name of the bill is. But do you care about the fallout? Do you care that so many young people will leave this state, never to return, including my three children? I thought your economic plan depended upon having workers available for the corporations you are trying so desperately to attract?

Peg Hadley []

Do NOT pass laws that resticts abortion access. Reproductive decisions should be between a woman and her doctor. Keep your bans off my body!

Mandi King []

Abortion is healthcare. To play a six week ban on all abortions after that time period (one in which many people dont even realize they are pregnant within) is to keep people from making choices that support their wellbeing. This country is based on freedom. That being said, individuals should be given the right to decide what they do with their own bodies. This is not a place for government. Its not a place for the church to determine law. There must be a separation between church and state. People must be given the right to choose to live their lives as they see fit. Not as the state deems.

Andrew Wolos []

What will happen if a woman is raped and does not realize she is pregnant until after a fetal heartbeat is detected? She will be forced to carry her rapist's baby? Furthermore, will you be working to mandate paid maternity leave for women that will be forced to carry babies to term? Will you also be supporting zero deductible/premium healthcare for these women when they have to visit the doctor and hospital during these pregnancies? Will you be subsidizing childcare for the woman when she has to return to work? My guess is you will not. Because for Republicans, pushing this agenda, which has been shown to be widely unsupported by Americans, is not about protecting life or being prolife. It's about forcing birth. Because once that baby is born, you don't support any government assistance to help that mother and child succeed. Take note of what happened across the country in November 2022 when antiabortion politicians took this stance.

Julie Rinker []

6 weeks is not long enough to know whether a girl is pregnant. If you want to limit abortion, please consider extending the time frame to a reasonable length. And remember, the law does not allow a 1217 year old to adopt. Why would you force her into parenthood?

Wendy BLAKE []

If this horrendous bill becomes law it will put pregnant Iowa women in jeopardy. NO ONE has the right to dictate to women about their healthcare. NO ONE.

Susan Benton []

I oppose the socalled heartbeat bill. You are not representing the majority of Iowans, but instead are imposing personal beliefs on everyone, and denying women the ability to make their own healthcare choices.

Ioan Ittu [Pastor, Drake Graduate Student in Mental Health & Winterset Resident]

Legislators, please consider the following: The world around us is made up of many different heartbeats that dont have rights and privileges that we afford human beings. This can be seen in the animals we eat, as well as clams in our oceans and lakes. These clams, are at the lowest form debatably sentient life that have heartbeats, yet their heart doesnt extend to them the right to life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness. In the scientific pursuit of life, at 6 weeks, the embryos cells are starting to specialize into heart cells and simple nervous system cells. However, at this point in creation, these specialized cells have not yet made a human with inalienable rights. Take out a heart from a human and put a completely mechanical heart and they are still human. This shows what is essential to us is not the specialized cells that rhythmically contract and relax as a heartbeat. Being in a graduate program for mental health at Drake University in Des Moines, I am continually being shown that what makes us uniquely human, biologically and scientifically, is our brain. Take out the brain or have the brain be rendered nonfunctional, and we are no longer us. While many animals have brains of a simpler makeup, we humans have a cerebral cortex. The cerebral cortex is the key that makes us human in biological terms. Our cerebral cortex is not only larger than that of other higher life forms, built of more neurons, but our cerebral cortex also continuously learns and adapts in ways that are unique to humans. This gives us our uniquely human cognition. It is the development of the cerebral cortex, and not the heart, that marks our existence as humans with inalienable rights. Many basic lower brain functions that humans share with lizards comes from a portion of the brain called the brainstem. The brainstem begins development at 5 weeks of pregnancy and is more or less developed around 13 weeks. This brainstem is the source of many involuntary and autonomic functions in animals and humans such as heartbeats. The brainstem is the source of much of the fetal movement labeled by early Elizabethan medicine as a quickening. Brainstem functions do denote life, but not our uniquely human life. Our human cerebral cortex can be said to be present in an early form around 16 weeks of pregnancy and robustly developed around 22 weeks. However, the presence of the cerebral cortex is when uniquely human life that is biologically different from other life forms begins. Therefore, the ending of a pregnancy when a heartbeat is present but before the cerebral cortex is functioning is not the ending of a human life, but preventing one from coming into existence that has not yet begun. Compelling biological facts are just that, facts. Looking at it from a spiritual point of view, regarding marking the beginning of human life with a soul, my insights from 12 years as an ordained Christian pastor and 10 years of formal religious training before my ordination factor in. The Bible says that God breathes life into us. The word spirit and breath are the same in the Bible and the language Jesus spoke. Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit onto his disciples. Biblically speaking, souls have nothing to do with heartbeats. The blood moved around by hearts is holy in scripture in that it is said to have the power of life in it. But that holy blood and its power for atonement is in lambs and pigeons too. The holiness of blood and the heart that moves it, from a biblical perspective, is not unique to Gods human creation. We may come from different faith traditions, but from a biblical perspective, the beating heart is just not where the soul nor the image of God is located. Before you vote, please ask yourself this question of conscience: despite the very real political pressures to vote for this bill, can you in good conscience vote to create laws that put the rights of a notyethuman organism ahead of the rights of the full persons that are our sisters, daughters, granddaughters, nieces, and goddaughters, there in disregarding, denigrating, disenfranchising their rights to their bodies, health, and longterm wellbeing? There is no spiritual or biological reason to say human life and the rights inalienable to it start with heartbeats. As a current foster parent, who unsuccessfully tried to adopt a child, as well as having my little brother given away in adoption, and now successfully navigating infertility with my wife, I have experienced the deep consequences of unwanted and uncaredfor children on individual sand society. With all this information available, I am bound to conclude that abortion is a tragic but necessary option that should be available unencumbered to women up to the point that uniquely human life is present marked by a developing yet functioning cerebral cortex in an unborn child. At this point of a functioning cerebral cortex is when the complexities of discerning the rights of two humans should begin to take effect and be adjudicated under the rule of law.

Mallory Luensmann []

A ban on abortion is a detriment to the women of Iowa. If individuals dont feel safe here they will leave this state and that is not good for our already declining population. Allow Iowa women a say in their healthcare and do NOT let this happen!

Emily Breslin []

As someone who has health complications, and was told by more than one doctor that it was unsafe for me to have children, I do not think that any healthcare decisions should be made or enforced for a person by the government in any form. Healthcare is provided for the wellbeing of the individual and is not in my opinion something that the government should have control of.

Mark Willems []

Please vote to keep abortion legal in Iowa.

Beth Roy []

I support Iowa women having the ability to make these decisions with their families and in consultation with their doctor. Trust them to make their own healthcare decisions.

Rachael Terhaar []

I support the heartbeat bill and urge the Iowa legislature, to do the same!

Anya Illes []

Please vote NO. Please protect a womans right to bodily autonomy. Embryos and young fetuses are not people nor are they babies. The vast majority of abortions occur during these stages. Those that occur later are almost always for severe malformation or threat to life.Banning abortions at 6 weeks is complete theocratic and authoritarian nonsense. Nothing about cardiac cells becoming active makes the embryo a person. Please vote no on this divisive, disruptive, violent, abhorrent bill.

Candella Foley-Finchem []

There are so many reasons why someone might need to seek an abortion that the best thing to do would be to leave the decision up to the individual that is pregnant to decide along with her/their doctor or medical team, their loved ones, and their spiritual advisors. Or, if you really believe this is what Iowans really want put it on the ballot and test that theory.

Barbara Kelly []

It is unconscionable to restrict access to healthcare services for women that endangers their lives, wellbeing, and futures regardless if it is something someone else would personally choose. Im terrified for women in Iowa of child bearing age who would suffer under this legislation. The inequity and unjustness of this not only affects women but all of society

Josephine O’Donnell []

I strongly oppose this bill that will result in the death of women and girls in Iowa if enacted.We have already seen the horrors coming out of other states with similar laws. There is no way to legislate every particular and personal situation. These are decisions that should be left up to the woman, her healthcare provider, and her family. There is no role for the government in these personal decisions.

Carrigan Graham []

I support this bill! Life begins at conception and these babies deserve life.

Nancy Larsen [Planned Parenthood; Citizen]

7/9/23 Early in my career, prior to RvW, I cared for patients who were suffering from infection as a result of receiving illegal abortions. Many were critically ill and some died a terrible death. While I would not, in most cases, choose this action for myself, I couldn't possibly make this decision for others. Attached is a search that I did a couple of years ago, looking at studies related to pregnancy and termination of pregnancy over the years. Please do not force my fellow citizens to complete a pregnancy if they wish otherwise. If you choose to force ladies to do so, are you going to provide means to care for unwanted children? Nancy Larsen

Zoe Fredriksen []

Vote NO to prohibit abortion. Abortion is lifesaving medical care for women. Allowing this law to pass will be a tragic loss for equality and body autonomy. Women must have the right to CONSENT to pregnancy and giving birth. If this passes, dead bodies not consenting to organ removal for donation are shown more respect.

Kelsie Whitten-Smith []

Please vote No on the 6 week abortion ban. This is terrible legislation, as we've seen in other states, for women and girls. It will not be good for Iowa either.

Brooke Quinn []

Oppose the 6 week ban. Abortion is healthcare.

Jennifer Nellans []

Our rights are being destroyed by elected officials, instead of being protected.

Lori Eisbrener []

Most women with unintended pregnancies choose life. This bill takes that choice from ALL of them. AND will impact attachment and have damaging effects on the mental health of these babies and generations to come. The damage that a heartbeat ban will have on the big picture of our society is unimaginable. We can all agree decreasing abortion is a good goal. There are MANY other ways to reach this goal without taking away a woman's self determination. Babies have a right for their mom's to be allowed to choose them.

Anita Christensen []

I am against any further abortion restrictions. The majority of Iowans, no matter their political affiliation, support access to abortion. I myself would never have an abortion, and Ive counseled my children that it never needs to be an option for them. But, because no one else can know a persons situation and what leads them to this choice, I cannot take that choice away from others. Abortion is a deeply personal decision. Every person deserves the right to control their reproductive health, and their future. Politicians should not put themselves in the middle of Iowans health care or their decisions.

Emily Hammond []

Bodily autonomy is a human right. Pregnancy and childbirth complications are varied, medically complex, all too common, and impossible to effectively legislate. Women should be allowed to make decisions about their own healthcare in consultation with trusted healthcare professionals and based on specific, personal circumstances. History and geographical comparison have shown that bans such as the proposed bill will increase maternal mortality, not to mention the other significant physical, mental, and emotional health impacts for women. Shouldnt pro life include these womens lives?

Debra Zupke []

This bill is a boondoggle for Iowa. The majority of Iowans support abortion access. This unnecessary special session is costing taxpayers and the court battles will cost even more for taxpayers. The taxpayers DO NOT want this bill. Iowa's Colleges and Universities will suffer. Not only will it be very difficult to attract students to a state where their freedoms are limited, it will be near impossible to attract and retain teaching staff. There are REAL problems in Iowa, and abortion is not one. Please focus on feeding the hungry, solving the health disparities for black and brown Iowans, investigating nursing home closures and abuses, and decreasing cancer rates. Abortion is a normal, necessary, and safe medical procedure. Just ask the American Medical Association, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Board of Medical Specialties, the American Medical Women's Association, and the World Health Organization.

Michael Dorothy []

I support a woman's right to choose abortion.

Deb Davis []

Please support this bill. Protect the lives of the most innocent who cannot speak for themselves.

Layrie Ungs []

Im a 67 year old woman who has lived in iowa most of my life! I believe in reproductive freedom and support abortion in most instances. The people who will be most affected by an abortion ban will be the young and the poor, in actuality, they are the least likely to be able to sustain a safe pregnancy or support a child. If we truly care about the unborn in Iowa, why are so many of our mothers dying? Why are we not supporting Medicaid for our mothers without means? Why are we going to vilify doctors for doing their jobs? Why is Iowa in the business of taking rights away from our citizens? What is the goal here? Will we criminalize patients who miscarry? Look at the chaos that is happening in other states with bans! Women are dying!!! More than anything, I want to know, why doesnt Iowa put it to a vote. If you believe Iowans are against reproductive freedom, (even though over 60% believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases) lets vote on an amendment to our constitution! Let Iowans decide!

Beth Hoffman []

Please vote NO on SSB 1223 and respect a womans right to choose.

Tracy Creason []

The Governor and Republican lawmakers have spent the 2023 session passing laws in the name of parental rights from banning books to funding private education using taxpayer dollars and now you call a special session to take away one of the most fundamental and personal parental rights, reproductive healthcare.Abortion is healthcare! Every Iowan has the right to make personal, reproductive healthcare decisions. These decisions belong with the individual and not with government. When you bring your personal and sometimes religious views into government, your narrow views take away parental decisions and responsibilities from people and limit the freedom most Iowans deserve. When you pass laws based on your personal beliefs you take away the ability for Iowans to make healthcare decisions for themselves. You are not protecting lives; you are endangering the lives of Iowans. There are numerous reasons someone makes reproductive healthcare decisions, those reasons are private, personal and no ones business, especially the government. You are being hypocritical as you claim you want to protect the rights of Iowans, but you only want to protect those that follow your values.While Iowans elected you, they did not elect you to govern our bodies or our reproduction. Passing restrictive abortion bans will only harm Iowans. You need to leave the current laws on abortion intact and allow Iowans the right to make reproductive healthcare decisions for themselves.reproductive healthcare is a personal, medical decision made by the person and potentially their doctor. This is not a decision made by a politician. I value life and respect science, medicine and the personal decisions made by those involved. Your comments should include compassion for the person making this decision, not having to fight or argue as to why. They should not have to worry about hate or fear their decision will bring on violence or penalties of law. Your comments should also include this is not our decisions as politicians.These very restrictive laws put patients and doctors at risk. Patients are dying. Doctors are held to do no harm as politicians are forcing them to choose between helping their patients or breaking the law. Politicians do not know the circumstances of the person making these decisions, yet they judge based on their personal beliefs and values.As Governor Reynolds and her band of Republican lawmakers want to pass a 6week abortion law based on their own personal beliefs and values they go against medicine, science and even the religious beliefs of Iowans. According to experts, the term fetal heartbeat is misleading and medically inaccurate.According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) it is clinically inaccurate to use the word heartbeat to describe the sound that can be heard on ultrasound in very early pregnancy. In fact, there are no chambers of the heart developed at the early stage in pregnancy that this word is used to describe, so there is no recognizable heartbeat. Until the chambers of the heart have been developed and can be detected via ultrasound (roughly 1720 weeks of gestation), it is not accurate to characterize the embryos or fetuss cardiac development as a heartbeat. What pregnant people may hear is the ultrasound machine translating electronic impulses that signify fetal cardiac activity into the sound that we recognize as a heartbeat. I urge you to get all the facts and leave the current law intact.This is a very important decision for Iowans!

Matthew Kuhn []

I support this legislation, but it must be improved. The Iowa Assembly must protect all innocent life from conception until natural death.

Emily Trudeau []

Criminalizing abortion does not reduce the number of abortions that occur. It simply increases the already strikingly high mortality rate of pregnant people in America. Making abortion illegal does not make it go away; it makes it unsafe and punishes the families involved. If enacted, this law will cost Iowa a significant number of future and current physicians. Iowa cannot afford to lose more physicians; our rural areas and our laboranddelivery wards are struggling to stay afloat.Numerous polls and surveys consistently show that a significant majority of Americans support a person's right to choose. As representatives of the people, it is crucial that you align your policies with the will of the majority and ensure that human rights are upheld. Thank you for your time. an Iowa physician

Kevin Hendress []

I support this bill, however this bill does not go far enough to protect life. Life begins at conception; thus, it should be protected from conception on. Please pass this bill and then in January I expect an updated version to include protection for a baby starting at conception.

Kelly Bryant []

Vote No on any heartbeat bill. "Vote to make sure abortion care stays accessible to those who need it" "I, along with the majority of Iowans, support keeping abortion, safe, legal, and accessible because its the right thing to do for women. When you remove the healthcare decisions from females you condemn us to second class citizens. The male politicians deciding whats best for strangers theyve never met & will never agree are equal to them, arent even medical doctors. How dare you allow this condemnation to poverty for the female & any children she already has at home. Iowa republicans have no desire to expand healthcare to include women or any of the needs, education, work place w/day care, or food supplements for those who need assistance. Instead you continue to make access more difficult. You have made it so that rapists can choose their baby momma with little or no consequence to the man doing the violent act of impregnating, that should include husband rape but it wont in this patriarchal run gop. Instead you would force the girl to carry to term the spawn of evil & then allow him custody. Shameful. At six weeks there is no heartbeat, only the electrical hum of fetal cells & blood tissue. No fetus can survive on its own. Do you ever consider the children already born & those who may be born in the future when abortion is chose? You destroy or kill those kids by denying a woman choice on what to do with her body & family planning. Unless you are going to support women 100% you have no right to destroy their entire lives with an unwanted pregnancy. If only men would take the responsibility that without the penis there is no unwanted pregnancy, no unwanted child, no lifelong mental issues being forced to use your body as a receptacle for the penis & sperm. How many laws are there on the books dictating how men can use their penis or that make masturbation an act to be policed for potential life in that sperm needed to fertilize an egg?Or how about the courts enforcing court ordered child support on the men that used their penis to impregnate, at no cost to the mothers to collect. If women arent equal in their rights, Iowa will continue to have a mass exodus of females & their potential families. Vote no on the heartbeat bill or any bill banning abortion, any bill that restricts womens right to making their healthcare decisions, vote no.Quit making females second class citizens.

Kelly Work [Registered voter ]

What is the difference between abuse of power, mishandling COVID funds and taking away transchildrens rights to healthcare? Not much, all three are things that our Governor are noted for. Now she wants you to do what the AG and to Iowa Supreme Court didnt do, take away all womens rights to determine their own PERSONAL reproductive care. This will likely cause INTENTIONAL INFLICTION OF EMOTIONAL HARM, RES IPSO LOQUITOR.We dont mandate VASECTOMIES for domestic violence abusers, rarely take their weapons away, as THEY have RIGHTS. WHEN WILL WOMEN HAVE RIGHTS?TRUST WOMEN, I DO.

Jack M Workman []

First I would like to say that God has the final authority on the matter of abortion. I believe that when a heartbeat is detected that makes it a living soul. To abort a living soul rather than to carry it for full term is an abomination and should be considered a crime. I think that a woman should consider it privilege to be pregnant and to care for it as a blessing from God. There are many ways that she can prevent from getting pregnant, such as either the female using a contraceptive or just abstaining from sexual activity saving that for marriage.

Diana Fern []

I am not in support of the 6 week abortion ban.Women in Iowa need more health care options.The state legislature has no place restricting womens bodily autonomy choices.

Laura Fehr []

The majority of Iowans believe we have the right to make our own decisions about our bodies, lives and futures free from government control. Iowa families not politicians should be able to decide what medical decisions are best for them. I ask you to take a stand for the rights of Iowans and vote NO on any abortion restrictions in the upcoming special session.

Ashley M. []

Legislators, I urge you to please vote "no" on this bill. As a chronically ill woman, whose medical condition would make it very difficult to maintain a healthy pregnancy but that likely wouldn't be considered a "medical emergency" in your definition I am frightened and frustrated that this is the direction that you are trying to take to regress our state. I and any other woman should have access to abortion a scientific, proven, centuries old medical procedure. Women shouldn't have to experience a medical emergency or have been violated to access safe abortion procedures. I am glad that you are including these exceptions, but abortion should remain accessible for all, no matter what the reason is. It is a choice to be made between the pregnant woman, her family and her doctor. Women have always obtained abortions limiting them will just ensure that women pursue unsafe and deadly abortion procedures. Iowa's motto is, "Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain." I implore you to please stand for this don't take us backwards. Don't be hypocritical and stand against freedom and safety. If you want to be prolife, fine, but please do so in a more constructive and helpful way expand access to contraceptives, mandate accurate and comprehensive sexual education, strengthen supports for struggling families, etc. There are other ways to fight for life that won't harm several people and effectively make women secondclass citizens. Please represent the will of the people most of whom when polled consistently oppose restrictions on abortions. Please see the attached image but from a poll conducted by the Des Moines Register & Mediacom Iowa in 2022 "Most Iowans, 61%, say abortion should be legal in most or all cases, while 33% say all or most cases should be illegal. Six percent are unsure." Clearly of these numbers, the majority of those polled support abortion access. Additionally, from the article "At least half of every demographic group supports it as well.... A huge majority of women favor legal abortion (72%), as do people under age 35 (69%)." If you want to represent your constituents and fight for the will of the people, put this issue on the ballot please stop talking to groups who don't represent a large portion of how Iowans feel on this issue. Additionally, our country and state were founded on the ideal of separation of Church and State. Most arguments against abortion are created for religious reasons, but all of us deserve to live our lives free from worry of religion interfering in politics and policies, and thus our lives. Some people have different religious beliefs than you, and some have none at all. Please stand for separation of Church and State, freedom for women, trusting women, trusting medical professionals, and healthcare. For these reasons, and others, I implore you to PLEASE vote "No" on this bill. Please listen to the majority on this issue who disagree with what you are trying to do. Thank you for your time and consideration. Ashley

Jordyn L []

LIFE, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Passing this legislation is a start in ensuring this. Everybody deserves a chance at life.

Kathy Berge []

Please vote NO. This decision should be made between a woman and her doctor, not legislated

Keri Diedrich []

I am AGAINST this ban. Please protect women's rights over their own bodies. There are so many variables involved in this important life decision and it should be up to the person who will bear the responsibility...the pregnant woman.

Connie Alt []

I am adamantly opposed this 6 week abortion bill and as a mother of 2 daughters who are in their mid 20s and embarking on their careers, I certain that passage of this bill will cement their desire to leave the State and never return. You are making a huge mistake.