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Permanent LinkIowa Legislature Public Hearings
Public Hearings and times are as follows:
SF 359 - A bill for an act prohibiting certain actions regarding fetal body parts and providing penalties. (Formerly SF 52.)
Sponsored by the Human Resources Committee
Tuesday, March 20, 2018
7:00 PM (introductions begin)
8:30 PM (conclusion of the hearing)
RM 103, Sup. Ct. Chamber
Comments Received at Public Hearing (Date Published: 04/09/2018)
03-19-2018
N/A
PRO
Affidavits submitted regarding SF 359 - Mens_Declarations_Redacted_Part1.pdf - Refer to the attachment
Attachment
03-19-2018
N/A
PRO
Affidavits submitted regarding SF 359 - Redacted_Mailed_Part4.pdf - Refer to the attachment
Attachment
03-19-2018
N/A
PRO
Affidavits submitted regarding SF 359 - Redacted_Online_Part5.pdf - Refer to the attachment
Attachment
03-19-2018
N/A
PRO
Affidavits submitted regarding SF 359 - Redacted_Part2.pdf - Refer to the attachment
Attachment
03-19-2018
N/A
PRO
Affidavits submitted regarding SF 359 - Redacted_Summer_2013_Part3.pdf - Refer to the attachment
Attachment
03-19-2018
03-19-2018
La Donna Struckman []
CON
As I've said before I am writing to urge you to help put a stop to any and all attempts to ban or restrict access to safe, legal abortion in the state of Iowa.Both the Senate and House have introduced "heartbeat bills"that threaten to set reproductive rights back by decades, and that is not something anyone should want for our state."Heartbeat" legislation would ban nearly all safe, legal abortion by making it illegal to terminate a pregnancy the moment a fetal heartbeat is detected before many women even know they are pregnant with very narrow exception for medical emergency. This legislation would intentionally challenge Roe v. Wade and interfere with Iowans' personal, private medical decisions.Rather than having Iowan male politicians press restrictions on women and how they control their bodies, why don't you spend the time and effort exploring ways to press restrictions on the way men control their bodies, specifically their sexual urges and actions. Then women wouldn't get pregnant as often plus the taxpayers of Iowa wouldn't be paying hush money or settlements on sexual harassment claims.Abortion is constitutionally protected health care, and politicians have no right to make medical decisions for other people. I do not want Iowans' reproductive rights taken away, and Iowa taxpayers cannot afford the lengthy, divisive legal battle that would result if this legislation was enacted into law. I stand with the medical community, legal community and the majority of Iowans who strongly oppose this legislation. Stop acting like you own our bodies. You don't.Women, stand up for your rights.Please do the right thing, and resist any and all attempts to ban or restrict access to safe, legal abortion.
03-19-2018
Renee Ann Cramer []
CON
I will be speaking about the constitutionality of the bill and its susceptibility to legal challenge.
03-19-2018
Luana Stoltenberg [Citizen]
PRO
I had abortions in my teens. Because of the damage done to my body from the abortions I could not have children. I was told by the abortion industry that it was just a blob of tissue and it would be safer then carrying to term. None of that was true. I am now 58 and never was able to get pregnant and now we find out it is more then a blob of tissue and in fact they are selling the babies body parts for profit. Did they dismember my children and sell their body parts. I am in favor of this bill. Abortion is NOT healthcare, it is destroying womens lives and killing their children. By day 56 of a womans pregnancy, not even 2 months, the heart is beating, there are brain waves, nervous system is functioning, skeletal system is developed, there are fingers toes, ears, eyes, nose, and all organs are functioning. All future development is simply growth and maturity of what is already there. I ask that you protect innocent babies lives, and women who are being misinformed, and pass SF359. Thank you,Luana
03-19-2018
Jennifer Christie Brierly [Save the 1]
PRO
objects to any discriminatory "rape exceptions".
03-19-2018
Rev. Dr. Beverlee Bell [Walnut Hills United Methodist Church]
CON
The heart beat is not the only measure of life in humans. There are people who are claimed to be brain dead and life support is discontinued. The brain of a fetus at six weeks is incapable of supporting life. Biblically the test for life is breath. This bill doesn't have a strong biblical basis. It doesn't have a historical Christian basis. It also has no basis in human development.It's invasive in people's lives and makes decisions for others that should be left up to the individuals involved and their faith beliefs.
03-19-2018
Susan Krisko []
CON
I am opposed to this dangerous bill. The majority of people in Iowa do not want to go back to backalley, unsafe abortions. The Republican led government should focus on our collapsing economy and infrastructure, not passing a bill they know will cost tax payers dearly to follow as it challenged in the courts. When will the majority of Iowans be listened to?
03-19-2018
Pam Sanger []
PRO
I am praying this will pass. This is the most important item that Iowa will vote on. This needs to be stopped. I suggest Iowa take up the mantle for adoption. If we want to stop abortion we need to have answers with options. We need to do more to make sure every woman knows this option comes with support for her and her child. We need to make adoption the coolest thing in the world. Make every woman feel respected for making the right choice.
03-19-2018
Vicky McKim []
PRO
Please remember that death is measured by the absence of a heart beat, therefore it is only logical that the heart beat also means there is life. The intentional silencing of the heart beat of an unborn child is murder. The outrageous practice of selling parts of aborted children needs to be stopped. Grave robbing or the desecration of the dead is morally rejected by our culture, so how much more should it be for those who would be still alive in the womb if they were not intentionally killed for the sake of convenience.I'm asking you to vote in support of the Heartbeat bill. Sincerely,Vicky McKim
03-19-2018
Anonymous [None: Private Iowa Citizen and Registered NP Voter]
CON
"Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain." From where I sit this looks like a direct attack on both of those principles. I will be forced to vote against those that push this kind of agenda.
03-19-2018
Anonymous [MOM]
PRO
Does a heartbeat mean there is life? YES! Yes, it does. Please give these little ones a chance at life.
03-19-2018
Deanne North []
PRO
Once a woman realizes she is pregnant, her "natural instinct" as a mother is to "protect" her unborn baby. Certainly, there is initial stress, fear and uncertainty for some women with unplanned pregnancies. But, allowing her the choice, by law, to abort her unborn baby will, in time, ultimately harm her emotionally and mentally. Even though some women may not agree, or be in denial, please do what's best for these mothers and their unborn babies.
03-19-2018
Anonymous [Iowa Resident]
CON
I would like an opportunity to speak against this bill.
03-19-2018
Anonymous []
PRO
Please stop this vicious cycle of killing unborn babies! Babies are Gods gift to us! How would you feel if you found out your mom was going to abort you!! You wouldnt be here today no marriage no children no grandchildren ! Praying you do the right things vote yes for the Heartbeat Bill ! One day we will have to account for everything we have done before God.Praying you will vote YES God BlessLorraine
03-19-2018
Mary B Underwood []
PRO
I am a mother. We should protect all unborn children. They have the right to life as we all should have. We do not have the right to kill other people, other humans. It is murder. Unborn children are the most vulnerable among us. They are not "globs" of tissue. They are little human beings worthy of our respect of their dignity. We need to protect the innocents. And we certainly should not be selling the body parts of little human beings who were brutally killed "legally". This bill makes sense considering once their heart is beating that should be a full sign of a living human being, let alone they were indeed alive even before this to even get to the development point of having a heartbeat. Please rescue the most vulnerable and innocent among us. And protect their mothers from making such an awful choice that abortion is. It is wrong. We have forgotten the immeasurable value of human lives.
03-19-2018
Steven Terrell [Mr.]
PRO
Abortion is murder of a helpless human being. Selling of their body parts is disgusting.
03-19-2018
Rev. Deb Hill-Davis [Unity Church of Ames]
CON
This is a choice between a woman, her doctor and is guided by her relationship with the God of her understanding. The moral teachings of one faith does not prevail over the rights of each individual woman. All women need access to reliable birth control so that there is less need for abortion.
03-19-2018
Peter and Mary Lyon []
PRO
We urge our lawmakers to pass SF 359 which would ban the sale of baby body parts and would stop the killing of unborn babies when a heartbeat is evident. Please come together to be a voice for those without a voice. Protect the unborn citizens of this state.
03-19-2018
Whitney Smith McIntosh []
PRO
I am a volunteer with Iowans for Life, Personhood Iowa East and an athlete with life runners. More than that I am a mom. An accidental mom. I discovered that I was pregnant when I was 12 weeks along. 2 days after the test came back positive I heard my sons heartbeat for the first time. I was 23 single and living in a new state with no family and no job other than being a graduate student. I was told several times to consider abortion. I was told I was being selfish and unreasonable. My son is 15 soon to turn 16 on Easter. He is an amazing person and the one thing that saved my life from the poor decisions I was making. I had a choice. I made my choice for my son. For that heartbeat. I said yes and never turned back. I do not want to force a choice or decision on anyone. But 98 percent of women already made their choice when they created their child. Once the child exists it is the mothers responsibility to protect her child, for 9 months until adoption or for 18 years. If a person is going to potentially create a child they must recognize that the child is alive, real and no longer an option.
03-19-2018
Diane Moussalli [N/A]
PRO
Supposedly we live in a modern civilization. The barbarism of murdering babies in the womb is bad enough, however to sell their body parts? I believe people who agree with this are of a reprobate mind to say the least.Question: Why is it that if a woman is murdered when she is with child, it is a double homicide, and punishable by law? But if a woman chooses to murder her unborn child it is legal? Our country is schizophrenic! Lord have mercy on us!
03-19-2018
Anonymous []
CON
My husband and I are ordinary, rural Iowa folks. My husband and I work hard on our family farm. We met and married later in life, but we were anxious to start a family. We welcomed a healthy baby boy into our family after 2 years of marriage. We were ready to have one more child and we were delighted when we became pregnant again a couple of years later. By this time I was 36 years old. Due to my age we were offered prenatal testing. We decided to take this step because having more information was better than not having any. The initial tests came back abnormal. We were sent to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN for further testing. I knew the minute I saw the face of the ultrasound tech that something was very wrong. She kept taking measurements and when we questioned her, she said she would have the Dr. come in and speak with us. When the Dr. came in he was grim. He told us it appeared that the baby had a Neural Tube Defect, Spina Bifida. He said the babys brain was very misshapen and large, indicating hydrocephaly. Because the shape and size of the brain, it was likely that there was brain damage and there would be cognitive issues. And the size and location of the tube defect indicated severe physical disabilities, requiring multiple surgeries over the next several weeks and years to address all issues. It would also require surgery immediately after birth to place a shunt in the brain to relieve the pressure of the fluid. We were devastated. We just received the most tragic news and information. Now what do we do with it? The next several hours were a blur of meetings with neonatologists, genetic doctors, and other medical personnel to give us information, answer our questions, and console two very emotional parents who just learned the most heartbreaking news. In between appointments, my husband and I either sat in numbed silence or held each other and sobbed. Ill never forget the ride home that day. About 10 miles out of Rochester, my husband burst into tears and had to pull our car to the side of the road. It was just too much. We spent the next several days in a haze of grief and sadness. We talked with our local doctor who delivered our son, we talked with friends and family, and we talked with our Pastor. But never once did occur to me to talk with my legislator. My husband and I weighed the future. We lived in a small, 150 year old farm house. We lived in rural Iowa, nearly 2 hours away from any specialized medical services. We had a young son who needed our attention. What kind of a life would this child have? One filled with medical procedures and pain? One where they were unaware of their surroundings and unable to interact with their family? What kind of life would our family have? One where we were separated much of the time due to ongoing medical treatment so far from home? And how would we manage the expenses? It soon became clear to us that we could not subject this baby and our family to that kind of pain and turmoil. We decided to terminate the pregnancy. It was not a decision we came to lightly. But it was OUR decision. Never once did it occur to me that my legislator would make themselves a part of that decision. Never once did I wonder if I was doing something unlawful. This is my body, my family. I would never negatively judge another family for making a different decision. I would offer help and support as they navigated their difficult journey. I expect the same consideration. Since then, I have become outraged and militant in my opposition to anyone trying to take away the rights of women in making these decisions. How dare anyone in the legislature believe they can supplant their judgement for mine and my Doctor. Who gives you that right? You are not God. I prayed to God during that time and since. Ill take my chances with Him, not you.
03-19-2018
Laura Carlson [Voter, taxpayer]
PRO
I have counseled women and men suffering from effects of abortions years following the procedure. "Short term gain, long term pain" I call this problem. Add to this often delayed reaction to science proving that a life was killed during abortion, the selling or pricing of baby's body parts for experiments and we see suicides, self cuttings, eating disorders, and depression increasing in America. There is a consequence to devaluing life and we are experiencing this currently in society.
03-19-2018
Starla Rook []
PRO
I fully support this bill and urge its passing into law. Thank you.
03-19-2018
Erica Lyon []
PRO
I would strongly urge you to support SF 359 in order to ban the sale of fetal body parts and ban abortions after a detectable heartbeat. We have four children, and hearing their heartbeats throughout each pregnancy was vital in making sure they were still healthy and everything was going well. So if that is a sign of good health for unborn babies (and all people as well), why is it that it is currently legal to stop that heartbeat before the baby is born? A beating heart means life, and stopping that heart means murder. Please vote in favor of this lifesaving bill. An entire future generation of Iowans will be forever grateful. And our family will be too. Thank you.
03-19-2018
03-19-2018
Anonymous [N/A]
PRO
I believe there should be laws to prohibit actions regarding fetal body parts and providing penalties. I also believe we should enact laws against abortion. Killing unborn children is so wrong!
03-19-2018
Joyce Lutz [Just me]
PRO
Please be a voice for the babies that cannot talk yet.
03-19-2018
Sheryl Soden [Ms.]
PRO
The sign of death is the final signal that life has ended. The START of a heartbeat is the sign of the BEGINNING of life. You can't get around that. Any Dr. has to admit that. And then to sell parts of a dismembered baby from abortion is so abhorrent is beyond belief. This is beyond what a civilized society does. We are on a slippery slope of absolutely NO regard for human life and it has to stop and stop NOW.
03-19-2018
Karen Hempen [Retired ]
PRO
31918Dear Senators,Ignorance is no longer an option. We KNOW a beating heart is proof of a real live human baby. We must stop killing our own children! PLEASE support SF359 and show the world that Iowans respect human life and have the courage to stop the baby slaughter! I'm counting on you to do the right thing,Karen Hempen
03-19-2018
Evelyn Sewell []
PRO
I am pro life and pro SF 359
03-19-2018
Mary Henry []
PRO
I feel it should be mandatory for every person voting for or against this bill to see an ultra sound of those children that are now legally able to be aborted. And also watch a video of an actual abortion procedure before they are able to cast their vote.
03-19-2018
Renn Reed []
CON
I am against this legislation.
03-19-2018
Mary Ann Andersen []
PRO
I respectfully ask all who oppose SF 359 to open your hearts and minds to the fact that all human life is sacred, thus to be protected from the time of natural conception to natural death.Remember, if your Mother had opted for an abortion you would not be taking part in this hearing.Thank you for your thoughtful consideration.Sincerely,Mary Ann Andersen
03-19-2018
Amy Rudolph [none]
PRO
I would like to voice my support in favor of SF 359. I am so grateful that we are considering banning the sale of fetal body parts and validating the life of every human being. As we continue to care for all women who find themselves carrying the life of another human life, during and after their pregnacy, we can offer mental and emotional support and at the same time spare not only precious lives from abortion but also spare the woman with child the agony and regret that so many women have experienced. Science, not the left nor the right, has confirmed life does indeed begin at conception. My life has no more value than another person's life, and it would be incredibly selfish to think so. Pregnancy is not a disease. It is not a death sentence. It is nine months. When a mother in the United States does not want a child, there are parents and families who will gladly take in a child. Men and women do have a choice most often as to whether or not they even need to worry about finding themselves in this siutation, and as a responsible society, we need to encourage abstinence as the prevention to pregnancy. We encourage the passage of this bill for the defense of human life in the womb.Amy Rudolph
03-19-2018
Chris & Sarah Nelson []
PRO
We would like to express our support for this bill. Our founding fathers made the declaration that everyone in this great nation has the right to LIFE, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We ask for your support in upholding the fundamental pillars of which this country was founded upon by protecting those who cannot yet speak for themselves. This is not a question of choice, as anyone who finds themself in a situation contemplating an abortion has already made their choice to engage in actions that lead to pregnancy. Please do not allow the desire for sexual irresponsibility, convenience, or economics cloud the question at hand: the matter of life or death. We plead with you to choose to protect the life, rights, and freedoms of the unborn in our state and nation. After all, your very existence and presence today is only because some chose you. Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this very critical issue.
03-19-2018
Russell Gilbert []
PRO
Is it not already bad enough that we murder our unborn but to dismember and sell a babies parts (yes baby, not quite as sterile as fetus) what type of society have we deteriorated into in this modern age of barbarianism. A child is always a child not anything less and why should they suffer because of someone else's lack of judgement.Please send this bill thru for countless unborn childrens' lives.Yours truly, Russell Gilbert
03-19-2018
Anonymous [None]
PRO
I am for this bill and ask that you vote to send it to the floor for a vote this session. Children are priceless and should not be endanger before they even have a chance at life. They are also not for sale!
03-19-2018
Crystal Reamer []
PRO
I am writing in support of SF359 also known as the "Heartbeat Bill". The spark of life has been witnessed at the moment of conception in the lab setting. And though I believe life begins at this moment, I back the Heartbeat Bill because it is a step closer to where we need to be as a civilized nation. As a nurse, the heartbeat is our medical determinant of life versus death. Our society recognizes the significance of a heartbeat as an indication of the presence of life. Therefore the sound of the heartbeat of a baby in a mother's womb must also be acknowledged as the existence of life. Any actions, such as abortion, that ends this life must be called what it is...murder. Speaking factually, there is no reason in present time for any woman to have an unwanted pregnancy due to a wide variety of contraception choices. Unfortunately, women are using abortion as contraception and that is inaccurate and unacceptable. Apparently people need to be reminded to be sexually responsible and prevent unwanted pregnancies. Abortion must not be an option, especially when the sound of a heartbeat can be heard. Of course, the harvesting and sale of fetal body parts is vile and heinous and must end immediately. It is incorrigible and is not a part of a sane society. Do not fear challenges and objections to doing the right thing. "Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong.Do everything in love".I Corinthians 16:13,14Allow your righteous approval of the Heartbeat Bill to be condemned and villified. Meanwhile your brave stance will represent a beacon of light for the rest of the nation and the world. Look forward with zeal to the bill's review by our great Supreme Court of the United States. Your virtuous approval of the Heartbeat Bill will prevail.Again I ask you to approve HF359. Life begins at conception and a heartbeat proves life exists without a doubt.Thank you,Crystal Reamer
03-19-2018
Anonymous []
PRO
Here is just something to think about.Find a quiet place to lay down, press your ear against your upper arm and listen to your heart beat.Here's the question. Where were you at when your heart beat the first time? Check out Psalm 139:1316Next question. What caused your heart to beat the first time? My answer is this, that's when the Holy Spirit first enters the physical body.next question. Who wants to go against the Holy Spirit of God to stop that heart beat?WEJ
03-19-2018
Colette Loots []
PRO
The Bible tells us repeatedly in His Word how all children are a gift from God. Every single life, every single child, is a reward and blessing. God is the one who makes the first beat of the heart happen and is the only one who should decide when our time here is done. God did not create life (babies) so that people can destruct them and sell/use their parts. Thank you for your time.
03-19-2018
Jill Johnson []
PRO
Recently I listened to a disaster relief director tell of his experience rescuing survivors from a Nepal earthquake. His team had at their disposal the use of a small sensor device that could detect a human heartbeat through the rubble of cement and brick. In this scenario, hearing a heartbeat rallied rescue workers to save precious life. Why would detection of a human heartbeat within a pregnant woman not also rally workers to save precious life? Human life deserves a chance at full expression, whether the disaster victim or newborn baby emerges with full capacity or adversity. Life is a gift.
03-19-2018
Carol Schmidt [Personal comment]
PRO
This bill totally supports respect for life, in both preventing abortion after heartbeat is heard, AND preventing sale of body parts.There are currently about 40 food manufacturers who use aborted baby parts in their products....a fact very few people seem to be aware of. They include Pepsi, Lean Cuisine and Nestle.Please support this bill.
03-19-2018
Richard David [Mr.]
PRO
The heartbeat bill is not based on anyone's theology. It is based on science. A heart beat is proof of life. Killing it should be murder.
03-19-2018
David Hammond []
PRO
Please take a stand for life. I's a heart beat. No one should have the right to stop a heart beat life. Please vote for life. Thank you, David and Rose Hammond
03-19-2018
Anonymous [None]
PRO
I am asking for your support of this bill. 11 years ago my sister found herself pregnant as a young unmarried adult and the father was not a good person. Every person around her told her she needed to get an abortion so that she could continue college and not have to deal with a long term relationship with the father of the baby except for my husband and me. In her vulnerable state she decided to keep the baby as my husband and I supported her through her pregnancy standing by her side through the hard times. Her baby just turned 10 and I cannot tell you how many times she has told me how very thankful she is for us being the voice of reason amongst an overwhelming amount of people pressuring her to choose her momentarily comfort over the child in her womb. I often look at her little boy and am so grateful for her choice and that I get the joy of having my nephew in my life!Again I am asking for your support of SF359.Thank you!
03-19-2018
Brent Meinecke []
PRO
What are the differences between abortion and mass shootings? People who approve of abortion are against gun violence, unless they are planning to be perpetrators of gun violence. Abortion takes exponentially more innocent lives. Are those lives less important than the students killed by mentallyill shooters? Both of these issues need to be taken seriously. The " Heartbeat Bill" can be enacted more easily than any solutions to totally prevent mass shootings. Let's get started. Lives are at stake.
03-19-2018
Anonymous [None]
PRO
Life begins at conception. We humans do not have the right to take away life or to make laws that reduce the sanctity of life. Please vote in favor of this heartbeat and fetal parts bill so that there would be fewer infant deaths and to prevent gleaning profit from the sale of fetal body parts. Adoption is acceptable; abortion is not (unless the life of the mother is at risk). Thank you.
03-19-2018
Jane Robinette []
CON
I oppose this bill. It would ban a constitutionally legal procedure at a time when many women don't even know they are pregnant. Why should legislators have a say in this intensely private decision, shaped by factors they know nothing about, and resulting in consequences they don't have to bear?This bill allows NO exemptions for psychological or emotional conditions, the age of the woman, or whether the pregnancy occurs from abuse. This does not represent a "culture of life." It wholly disregards the lives of women and their ability to seek and obtain legal and safe medical care and procedures.The heartbeat of the fetus is completely dependent on the heartbeat of the woman for many months. How can you disregard the heartbeat of the pregnant 9yearold incest or rape survivor? How can you tell a 50yearold mother of grown children to just bear a ninemonth pregnancy despite the health risks to older women? What will you say when a pregnant teenager is suicidal? How will you live with the deaths of any of these women?Simply put, this amendment would endanger girls' and women's lives. Abortions will not stop by legislation. Legislation will only determine how safe abortions are for women who don't have the means to travel outofstate to obtain them. This law would also harm our ability to train, attract, and keep OBGYNs in our state, and we already have an insufficient number. It is a fact that many people's lives would be saved with organ donations. Would you like to be mandated by the government to provide one of your kidneys to someone? Would you like to be required to set aside your own physical and emotional wellbeing, to interrupt your school or worklife, to be denied bodily integrity? That is what this bill would do. You are mandating that women and girls save fetal life that is part of their own body against their will and against their own life and health.This bill is not "prolife" for the life of the woman or girl. Details matter. And so do women's lives. We will not go back.
03-19-2018
Kevin Lunn []
PRO
Life begins at conception. Killing the baby should not be a form of birth control. Those babies are precious life crying for and deserving our protection.
03-19-2018
David McPherson []
PRO
We must stand up for the right thing in Gods eyes. Otherwise we are guilty of doing what He sees as wrong!
03-19-2018
Randy Lynch []
PRO
A fetus, a baby, a toddler, a teenager and an adult are humanpersons in different stages of life.But even if you dont believe that an unborn baby is a human person, our society is in favor of animal rights. Animals are not humans or persons, but they have rights and protection under the law; and human persons can go to jail when they violate animal protection laws. If you destroy a bald eagle egg, you could go to prison for a year. Shouldnt the unborn human deserve the same rights respecting his or her life?As far as in the case of rape, aborting the baby is not the answer, I would suggest counseling and adoption. Most rape victims have emotional distress that will last more than the 9 month period of a pregnancy. In fact, having an abortion could cause additional emotional distress. Also, what other crime is an innocent child condemned to death for their fathers crime?The argument that a fetus isnt a baby fails. If it isnt a baby, then they wouldnt have to destroy it, would they?
03-19-2018
Anonymous [ ]
PRO
Please help the unborn! In Jesuss name I pray.Thank you
03-19-2018
JoAnn Bieber [private citizen]
PRO
I urge passage of this bill prohibiting the sale of fetal body parts and banning abortions after detection of a heartbeat. Please consider these two points.1 Babies in the womb and fetal body parts both contain human DNA. Derived from mommy and daddy. Babies are not a mere 'thing', they are humans worthy of all the protection afforded humans at the age of day one. Fetal body parts are also human and should be handled with reverence and respect as our society honors all of our deceased.2 Artificial intelligence is coming upon us rapidly. This will bring questions of what is humanity and if humans are even preferable to I.A. as humans are said to leave a scar upon our earth. What does that mean for us? Our children and grandchildren? Society's cavalier way of dealing with babies, fetal parts, the infirm (i.e. Downs Syndrome in Iceland), and the elderly sets an incredibly dangerous precedent for moving into the uncharted future of artificial intelligence. Thank you for allowing me to address this subject. I urge legislators to consider not just the here and now of current politics, but the good of the State of Iowa, and the future of our families. Thank you, JoAnn Bieber
03-19-2018
Tim Ried []
PRO
I want to speak in favor of SF 359. The fact that we even have to talk about a bill to make it illegal to sell human body parts is a travesty. The reality is that an unborn baby is a human being and as such is entitled to protection under the law. A baby, especially one with a heartbeat is clearly and undeniably a human being It's a reality that cannot be denied bu anyone with an open mind. You can deny reality if you want to, but you cannot deny the effects of denying reality. If we continue to kill unborn human beings in the name of convenience and sell their body parts in the name of profit, the effects will be the devaluation of all categories of human life. Sincerely,Tim Ried
03-19-2018
Binnie LeHew MSW, LISW []
CON
I will present data and information on the impact of abortion on mental health and a public health perspective on reproductive health policy.
03-19-2018
Sheila Rassman [Holy Trinity/ACCW]
PRO
I am 100 % Prolife and this is such a momentous milestone for Iowa...it's about time that our voices will be heard...For their Lives...
03-19-2018
Rick Ramaeker []
PRO
To Whom It May Concern,I regret that I will be unable to attend the public hearing on House file 359. I would like to note to you however that everyone of the human beings who will attend, enjoys the protection of their mortal life by the law. It is way past time to extend that protection to the innocent, defenseless child in the womb. That is, after all where each of us began our lives in this world also.Sincerely,Rick Ramaeker
03-19-2018
Jeff and Adrianna Tuohino []
PRO
Our Declaration of Independence states all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, ... When someone is seriously injured and you detect a pulse, you know there's Life, ...Please for the sake of our nation support this bill to stop the government sanctioned murder of innocent Life.
03-20-2018
Noel Johnson [Crawford County Right to LIfe]
PRO
All children should have a chance at life, just as their Mothers were given. Let us not be so selfabsorbed as a people, as Mothers, to be blinded into thinking the heartbeat doesn't represent the living person inside the womb. Even before a heartbeat is detected, life is being formed. By giving life to the child in the womb, the child is saved and the Mother will be spared the anguish and the torment that almost always follows the very wrong decision of taking the life of the innocent unborn. Thank you,Noel Johnson, PresidentCrawford County Right to life
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
PRO
I am very much a prolife Christian. I believe that life begins at conception. If you go to an accident, the first responders always check for a pulse, which has to do with a heartbeat. That's how you can tell a person is living. We have murdered enough children and need to stop that. To all the planned parenthood people, a woman does not have a choice to kill her child. If she got pregnant, it is her responsibility to take care of the child. Abortion is murder. We need to start thinking about the child, when do they get a choice whether to live or die? Congress, please vote to stop all abortions. Thanks! Been praying for you all
03-20-2018
Sharon Ellingson []
PRO
I believe we cannot legislate the death of a baby, a person, just because it might be a difficult situation. I believe legislation is to protect the vulnerabie life. Even if life comes from violence, it is still a life worthy of protection. I hope we are a state that always protects each life and rallies around women who need our help to navigate an unplanned pregnancy. Please vote yes on the heartbeat amendment. It is unthinkable that fetal body parts can be sold. Please vote yes on this bill.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [None ]
PRO
Please support SF359. Please spare these precious lives that have no voice.
03-20-2018
Wanda Schultz []
PRO
To Whom it may concern, 25 years ago my daughter told her Dad and Me she was pregnant...she was not married. She was just beginning her life and a pregnancy was certainly not in her plans...however, she chose "life" for our granddaughter, in spite of the inconvenience and struggles. Today, we marvel at our granddaughter's accomplishments...she has gone to college and at 25 she has purchased and now runs a daycare here in our hometown. She has a wonderful influence over the children who attend...they love her! If her Mom had chosen abortion, the world would not have had a chance to know a funny, smart,responsible and very loving young lady. Please pass this bill to protect unborn lives and not mutilate those tiny bodies. Thank you!
03-20-2018
Doris Simmons [Church of Jesus Christ]
PRO
Please pass SF359 to save precious lives of Iowans and save mothers and fathers from emotional trauma. Thank you!
03-20-2018
Louette Ebeling [not affiliated]
PRO
Please protect the lives of the only truly innocent unborn.A woman has control over her body but the fetus/baby is not (ever) a part of her body. There are so many ways to prevent conception that abortion is NOT necessary except in EXTREMELY rare instance of danger to mother's life such as an ectopic pregnancy. When faced with an unwanted pregnancy all we who choose life ask is that the woman seek the help of those who can and will assist her to carry the child to term. She can then allow it to be adopted into a loving, welcoming family.
03-20-2018
Tom Chapman [Iowa Catholic Conference]
PRO
The Iowa Catholic Conference supports the lifeaffirming intent of heartbeat abortion legislation. We appreciate legislators for their efforts to advance the protection of unborn children and we remain committed to helping with efforts aimed at resolving questions regarding the bills constitutionality. We specifically support the provisions of the bill related to the trafficking of fetal body parts.
03-20-2018
Casey Dyball [Artisan Ceiling Systems]
PRO
I've never heard a pregnant person say "I'm having a fetus". They always say, "I'm having a BABY." That's because it's common sense to know that pregnancy usually leads to a baby. And babies can't defend themselves, so it's our job to defend their lives for them. We've all seen ultra sounds with the baby kicking and moving in the womb, it's very clear that there's a baby in there. The baby has a UNIQUE HUMAN DNA, the baby has a HEARTBEAT, and we need to protect that beating heart because that baby deserves the right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness no matter what. That's governments primary role to protect the people. This baby has a beating heart, He or She is a person and has a right to live.
03-20-2018
Chuck Teutsch []
PRO
The primary function of government is to protect life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (property). Life is the first priority. Please be bold and vote this bill out of committee to the full House.
03-20-2018
Rev. Marshall Hahn [Iowa Mission District, North American Lutheran Church]
PRO
As Dean of the Iowa Mission District of the NALC (North American Lutheran Church), I write on behalf of our church body and congregations in support of SF 359. Attached is the document, "Word of Counsel on Sanctity of Nascent Life" outlining our commitment to upholding the sacredness of all human life in the womb. From this document:"Abortion dehumanizes and diminishes all who are involved. It affects the father, who has lost what it means to be a guardian to his family and who has lost the learning that comes from a relationship in which spirituality and sexuality are not divorced. It affects the mother, whose denial may break down if she later conceives and bears a child, or is later unable to conceive a child, or whose guilt may spiral into the bondage of shame as she seeks to keep her abortion a secret. At last, it affects the child, the blessed child, a living human presence who is denied the fullness of body that was intended for him in this life and in the age to come."Also:"We do not want a woman who is overwhelmed by the news of an unintended pregnancy to abort an innocent child, a child whose cries for life cannot yet be heard, a child who is of great value to God, regardless of the circumstances of the childs birth. Whatever the circumstances of the pregnancy, the termination of the life of their child will not make a mothers or fathers life better."The heartbeat of a child in utero is the only audible "cry" which such a child can produce, and it ought not be ignored. We implore the legislature to listen to this "cry" and provide this very minimal protection to this most precious gift of life in the struggle to be born. Mahatma Gandhi is reported to have said, "The measure of a civilization is how it treats its weakest members." May we, as the people of the state of Iowa not be found wanting in such a measure.Rev. Marshall Hahn, Dean, Iowa Mission District, NALC
Attachment
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
This bill is overly restrictive. Protecting abortion access is not proabortion. Women that choose to have this procedure do not take the decision lightly. They often are considering whats best for the child.
03-20-2018
Marlene Smith []
PRO
I have been present and watched both parents, two daughters, and two twin grandsons die. The monitorconnected to their hearts flatlined; there was nolife. The beat of their heart stopped and they were declared dead. Scientifically, when the beat of the heart is heard, there is life. Please pass SF 359 that would protect parts of a baby still inside of the womb as well as protecting its life when the heartbeat is heard.Thank you for considering my input on this life/death issue.Marlene Smith
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
PRO
It seems to me to be common sense to prohibit sale of fetal body parts from abortions, and furthermore, it should be common sense to recognize that a heartbeat at any stage of life means that a life exists and should be protected.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
PRO
We must protect the lives of these innocent humans. Please prohibit the harvesting and selling of baby parts. Surely everyone can understand that this will eliminate one incentive for aborting babies.
03-20-2018
Carol Remer [Ida Area for Life]
PRO
I have been a sidewalk counselor and board member of a pregnancy center in Northwest Iowa. I have counseled women after they have had abortions it is heartbreaking for them. Medical science has given us the ability to see into the womb and watch the baby and know that it is a baby. Eagle's eggs are protected by law. They are protected before viability. It is time for a baby in the womb to be given the same legal protection as an eagle in its egg. Please pass the heartbeat bill thank you
03-20-2018
03-20-2018
Peg Vanderhoff [self]
CON
A heart beating is a heart beating. Few organism want to die, and those that do are depressed and medical attention is given to them. Would we take a heart and kidneys away from 2 month old, sweet baby Jane? When something is alive, it is alive. If allowed to speak, a fetus might mimic Sojourner Truth:"I want to say a few words about this matter. I am a human and want rights. I have as many muscles as most humans my size, and can do as much work as any my age. I have a beating heart, I consume nutrients, I am alive and growing, and can any fetus do more than that? I have heard much about the rights of my mother. I yearn to breathe as much as she does, and can eat as much as other fetuses, too.. I am as strong as any fetus that is now. As for intellect, all I can say is, if a woman have a pint, and a man a quart why can't she have her little pint full? Why can't I have all that I have. You need not be afraid to give me my rights for fear I will take too much, for a baby really doesn't take much, and so many are willing to provide. I can't read yet, but I can hear. I have heard the Bible and have learned that Jesus was a baby and His mother had to choose to keep Him. Well, what if she had chosen no, where would mankind be now? What impact do you think I will have on the world? I may have an answer the world needs, too. And now today is asking you, dear Legislator, to choose. Which of you would kill me and tear me apart for my parts? The better of you men and women, those who love life and would cling to life desperately if I were their grandson or granddaughter, those, the better will give me a chance to live, to let my heart beat for as long as it was designed to beat. I am obliged for you to listen to me. Now this little fetus han't got nothin' more to say."
03-20-2018
Linda [Haselhuhn]
PRO
It is with an intense and fervent plea I ask all involved in this most important issue to think on the life and the dependence of this life on your action. We as a society dwell on protecting life on every level except that of our own species. Many advocate how we mistreat animals and all wildlife but we are desperately failing this most helpless and vulnerable life. Most of us wouldn't think twice in giving 9 months of our life to protect another, but in this case it is our life that seems to many, more important. Please think on how this miracle of life should not be looked upon as a problem but instead how we can help and befriend this little one and his mother.
03-20-2018
Jennifer Erwin []
CON
03-20-2018
Anonymous [Mrs.]
CON
I am in opposition of this bill. As a woman who has been making my own decisions up until this point about when and if I choose to have children, I don't actually need elected officials to start regulating my body and making those decisions for me now. I am perfectly capable of doing that myself. Please stop with this madness (I'm looking at you Jake Highfill) and start focusing on the incredibly pressing issues facing this state we all love that is quickly heading to the bottom. I chose to leave Kansas for a reason.Please vote no on SF359.Thank you.
03-20-2018
Nicole Westergaard [Carver College of Medicine]
CON
I oppose the SF359 on the basis that the proposed legislation directly harms the education of medical students and threatens to eliminate Iowas obstetric and gynecology residency program and related fellowships. As it stands, SF 359 endangers the lives of Iowan women and children by compromising medical training that is vital to serving the medical needs of the people of Iowa.
03-20-2018
Maddie Bro [Planned Parenthood of the Heartland]
CON
Antiwoman legislators in the Iowa Statehouse seek to further strip a woman's right to make her own medical decisions. Conservative ideology expressed in this bill does not represent the 7 in 10 Americans who believe abortion should be safe and legal. This bill jeopardizes worldrenowned medical training opportunities at the University of Iowa OB/GYN residency program. To lawmakers and individuals who support this bill, do you seek to turn Iowa into a health care desert? Iowa's women, medical students and professionals, and their families are counting on you to do the right thing.
03-20-2018
Cynthia Loots []
PRO
I have heard some legislators say that many people do not know they are pregnant at six weeks. With all the pregnancy tests available on the open market at very little cost, it would be extremely rare that someone would not know at six weeks that they are pregnant. Most pregnancy tests are so sensitive, they can detect pregnancy within 48 hours of conception. I worked in a hospital/clinic laboratory for more than 40 years. Because pregnancy test were so available, the number of tests that we did over those years declined drastically. I heard one legislator say on a news broadcast that if a sevenyearold were raped and became pregnant, they would not be able to obtain an abortion. Acting flabbergasted, she looked at the Planned Parenthood group standing behind her. I think she mustve forgotten that a seven year old does not ovulate, and therefore could not get pregnant. Please protect our babies. In abortion, we are also killing womens rights because some of those babies would have grown up to be women. Thank you for your vote in supporting the heartbeat bill.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [None]
CON
I oppose this bill and any that would limit a woman's right to safe and legal abortion. Medical decisions regarding reproduction are best left between a woman and her doctor. This bill will put women's lives in danger. Stop this outrageous attack on women.
03-20-2018
Lisa Cunningham [Private citizen]
CON
I oppose this bill on many grounds. It takes away a woman's right to make her own healthcare decision. It puts the University of Iowa's OBGYN program in jeopardy of losing its accreditation. It makes no allowance for the health of the mother or the circumstances of the pregnancy. This bill is another attempt to shove a very partisan law down the throats of Iowan's who do not want it.
03-20-2018
Gordon L. Loots []
PRO
Please support the Heartbeat Bill when you have hearings tonight. Although I will not be able to attend, I want my voice to be heard. Some of the arguments against the bill show that some congressmen / congresswomen are not knowledgeable of the conception process. Medicine has improved over the years, and it would be an extremely rare instance when a person doesn't know they are pregnant. If that is true, they may carry the pregnancy for months not knowing and then the fetus would probably be viable for adoption. Please support this bill with your vote! Thank you for serving the people of Iowa!
03-20-2018
Chelsea Chism
CON
This amendment is a direct attack on women and our ability to determine the outcome of our own lives. Abortion is safe and legal. Iowa is looking to pass the most ridiculous and hurtful abortion regulations in the country. This is not an issue for politicians to decide. Politicians in Iowa are continuously worsening the relationship between women and our local politicians. Women will access abortions by any means necessary.
03-20-2018
Suzi Alexander []
CON
If you enact this legislation women will die. Mothers. Daughters. Sisters. Women. Will. Die.I do not believe I have the right to dictate what someone else should do regarding deeply personal decisions around pregnancy and I certainly don't want my government intruding into those decisions.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
Its a complicated issue. The reasons for needing/wanting one are varied and complex. Its not a lack of responsibility that leads a person to have one. I used to think it was that way, too, until I found out differently. Did you know that the definition of abortion is any abrupt end to a pregnancy prior to birth? That includes miscarriages. There actually arent any statistics to sort out how many abortions are elective and how many are miscarriage management. Its all lumped together. So when legislators make rulings on who can/cant have an abortion and when, it hurts all people who are needing the services. We, you and I, have a basic fundamental right to be healthy, happy people. We have a right to access to healthcare. We have a right to decide which procedures we will use or not. We have a right to decide the size we want our families to be. We have a right to be healthy people having a child if and when we want one. The Republican Party has made enormous strides in trying to ban abortion, not caring or considering why people might need it. And we will be in a sorry state if we have to beg and show evidence of why we need the healthcare procedures we do. Can you imagine begging for an angiogram? Or a removal of a tumor? People should make health and family planning choices without having to defend or be criminalized for it.
03-20-2018
Pastor Loren Carlson [Faith Bible Christian Outreach Center]
PRO
The basics of determining whether something is alive is whether or not their heart is beating. This seems simple enough, I'm surprised there would be opposition to this. Outside the womb if someone stops a beating heart it is called murder, yet in the womb it's "oh well." All of us came from a womb and they call us a person, inside the womb a person is growing, I struggle to see the difference. Legislators, please, sign this bill into law. Doing all we can to preserve and protect all living things is what "humans" do.
03-20-2018
Lori Rinehart []
CON
Please vote no. This decision is not one for the government to make. It is between the woman and her doctor. Keep abortion safe and legal. This is the law of the land.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [None]
CON
This bill is unconstitutional and morally wrong. Reproductive health is and should remain private and personal, without governmental intervention. Medical science, basic rights of body autonomy, and federal law are clear this bill is wrong.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [None]
CON
It has historically been defeated in courts. I believe in a womans right to choose. Many women would not even know they are pregnant until 8 weeks so this essentially outlaws the Roe versus Wade ruling by the courts. Missippi just had the following happen today, https://apnews.com/6c55a98736194980a29ddeba3ec71e00
03-20-2018
Sue Woolston []
PRO
Please protect our most innocent Americans by treasuring their life in the place that should be the safest on earth, the womb. As Americans, we are all granted the right to 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness', but only if life is granted each individual. Otherwise, they have been robbed of the very rights that you now enjoy. If we do not value the lives and bodies of the unborn, then what do we value?
03-20-2018
Christine Scott []
PRO
I think that it would be good for representatives to view and hear an ultrasound and heartbeat of a baby in the first trimester. I also think they should have to view the ultrasound of an abortion being performed on the unborn baby. Sometimes pictures educate us more than words. Also this isn't about woman's rights, unless you're talking about the 446,500 little girl babies who were aborted in 2016. Even Susan B. Anthony was against abortion calling it "child murder" and "infanticide." In 1869 Anthony said: "No matter what the motive, love of ease, or a desire to save from suffering the unborn innocent, the woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed. It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in death; But oh, thrice guilty is he who drove her to the desperation which impelled her to the crime!" The baby is a seperate person. And this is about how our society values life. The whole fact that we have to make a law against selling aborted baby parts is an abomination and alarming. We seek to make our schools safe, but the safest place in this world for a children should be within their own mothers' womb!
03-20-2018
Anonymous [Planned parenthood supporter]
CON
Having the option to have an abortion saved me from staying in an unhealthy abusive relationship where I didnt feel the need to have to stay. Taking this RIGHT away could end up taking so many more lives
03-20-2018
Citizen Of Iowa []
CON
Abortion is not a barbaric practice. Its one that involves a lot of education and a medical degree. This would all change if this amendment becomes law. Then, abortion would truly become dangerous to women. We can not force children on anyone, that is barbaric. I had my period at age 9. People are getting their periods younger and younger, this does not mean they are ready to become parents. If we want to truly care about children, we need to start with the ones outside of the womb. We need to start with one another. Ending abortion access will only hurt our communities.
03-20-2018
Emily Bartekoske []
CON
This bill is an extremely ignorant and dangerous offering which could have devastating results on women in Iowa. Decisions about a woman's healthcare, including rights to safe and legal abortion, should be decided solely between the individual woman and her healthcare providers.
03-20-2018
Lillian Davis []
CON
I am writing to you today about the heartbeat bill. It is cleverly designed to prevent women from having the right to exercise selfdetermination in that many tests to determine fetal abnormalities are not done until after a heartbeat is detected. I read Mr. Vander Plat's comments in the newspaper about life being established with a heartbeat, and I have to say he is wrong. A heartbeat is a sign of potential life, and anyone who has experienced a miscarriage can vouch for that.I would also reference Ms. Ernst's comments on school choice, to point out that there is no more personal and lifechanging decision than to have, or not have, a child. A family with children would be traumatized at a family's decision to put a handicapped child up for adoption these are not simple choices. And when a woman terminates a pregnancy because the child cannot live after birth (no brain stem), she should not be castigated. Similarly, a decision on family matters by a single woman must be respected, even if we are not in agreement on her choice.Personally, I have a daughter who is a midwife and does home births. She has many fundamentalist Christian clients, who share her point of view that families can make their own decisions on personal matters they do not want the government to make them for them. I also have a nephew who has Down's syndrome and has autism. It appears he will be receiving special services all his life. I totally respect the decision of my brother and his wife to continue this pregnancy after hearing of the possibility of his disabilities. I would also respect the decisions of a different family to take a different path. If you are serious about the government not dictating terms of our lives to us, you will vote against this heartbeat bill. It simply does not respect our basic rights to selfdetermination with regard to our families, our mostloved people. This is apart from the unconscionable terms which would force women to bear their rapists' children. How could you?Lillian Davis
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
Womens heath decisions are best made between a woman and her doctor. Imposing legal limits to the best options as determined by the woman and her doctor is a human rights violation.
03-20-2018
Chad Carlson []
PRO
Chairman Fry,My name is Chad Carlson, and Im a physician practicing Sports Medicine in West Des Moines. I want to make it clear that I am not here today as an expert in OB, however I do understand the accreditation process. Currently I serve on the Executive Committee for our national specialty academy, and will assume the presidency of that organization next year. Our organization works with the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education to ensure uniformity of training standards across all Sports Medicine training programs. The ACGMEs process ensures that an employer in Iowa hiring an obstetrician is getting a clinician with a consistent skill set, whether that individual has been trained in Iowa, California or Utah. The Iowa Board of Regents and the Iowa Medical Society are both opposing this bill over concerns that the Obstetrics and Gynecology training program at the University of Iowa would lose its accreditation if it were unable to offer training in elective abortion. This is hyperbole. The ACGMEs own policy, which Ive submitted along with my testimony, states that Programs with restrictions to the provision of family planning services or the performance of abortions at their institutions must make arrangements for such resident training to occur at another institution, so accommodations with hospitals across state lines could be sought if necessary. To further emphasize this, I contacted ACGME directly, and spoke with Kathleen QuinnLeering, the Executive Director of ACGMEs review committee for Obstetrics. Ms QuinnLeering confirmed that there is no requirement that abortion training take place in the same state as the residency program. Chairman Fry, let me be clear. Passage of the fetal heartbeat bill will not affect the University of Iowas accreditation, as long as the University pursues alternate pathways for its residents. Thus, this is not an existential crisis for the University of Iowa Hospital, but an issue of preference and pragmatism. It is also important to point out that the ACGME does not get to determine policy in Iowa. The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology does not get to determine policy in Iowa. The people of Iowa do. The reality is, if the people of the United States choose to stand up, proclaim the worth of the unborn as greater than any economic or strategic concerns, and formalize protections into law, ACGME will have to adapt their policy to the new reality. In the short term though, per ACGME directly, residents at Iowa who choose to train in abortion services can cross state lines to do so. Please know that many physicians and nurses in Iowa diverge from the opinion of IMS on the merits of this bill. I hope you and your colleagues will consider somberly the great opportunity in front of you and that leadership will use its influence to move the caucus toward protection of Iowa's most vulnerable citizens. Thank you.
Attachment
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
PRO
One of the things that makes Iowa such a great state is our ability to see the value in others regardless of their past. Many people who visit comment on how nice people are in Iowa. Iowa nice is not just a catchy phrase, it is a reality of how we live each and every day in this great state. We are all in this together and that means taking care of each other. Protection of the most vulnerable in our society if of utmost importance, and we have the opportunity to do that with this bill. A baby's life should not depend on the parents choice. I support this legislation to provide the opportunity for babies to be born and become a part of this great state. Support of these babies and their families should be a top priority going forward. This is an opportunity to develop a stronger society where a woman doesn't have to fear that a baby will be detrimental to her life and know that the baby is valued by all of society.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [NA]
CON
This bill is unconstitutional and should not move forward. This choice should be left up to the woman and her doctors. This bill puts the health of women in this state at risk a d is unwarranted. Why don't we pass bills to support better education and access to birth control instead to minimize the impact. But no that is not something our legislators back either. In addition will you be supporting by new health legislation these expecting women? I bet not, this bill is pro fetus, anti choice, anti woman, anti child! We do not support this!
03-20-2018
Alyson Sorensen []
CON
SF359 will not prevent abortions in Iowa. It will not dramatically decrease the number of pregnant people who seek abortions and it will not save the lives of countless fetuses. In fact, SF359, if passed and signed into law, will have a body count. People experiencing pregnancy will seek alternative means to terminate the pregnancy. They will search for at home remedies, they will mutilate their bodies, and they will die. SF359 will kill pregnant people. It will ruin lives and destroy families. It will cause bloodshed and heartbreak and will drive Iowans to desperate ends. SF359 is not a prolife bill. It is a direct assault on the lives of Iowans who experience pregnancy. I vehemently urge members of the Iowa House of Representative and my own Representative, Mary Ann Hanusa, to vote against this bill.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
This bill poses a danger to women in Iowa. Safe and legal abortion is a right granted by the Supreme Court. Please do not set this state back further with this destructive bill.
03-20-2018
Becca Lee [n/a]
CON
I respectfully ask the legislature to vote NO on SF 359. Call it a 6week ban or call it a "heartbeat bill," this bill does one thing and one thing only: it makes safe, legal abortion functionally impossible for women to access in the state of Iowa.99% of abortions are accessed in Iowa between 6 and 20 weeks, and the interest groups who are urging you to support this bill know this. I understand they think they are doing the right thing, and I understand you may be firm in your own personal values on abortion. You are entitled to your values. But your values are not aligned with the majority of Iowans, or Americans, who understand the reality that when safe, legal abortion is not available, women die trying to end pregnancies by any means necessary. I have only ever known Iowa under Roe v. Wade; my own mother was hardly old enough to remember when the landmark case became law of the land. But I grew up driving past a health center in Bellevue, Nebraska, where regularly groups of people would protest and degrade women simply trying to take control of their own bodies, futures, and lives. In my heart and core, I have always known this kind of protests are shameful, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with a woman seeking an abortion. Those are my values, and your elected position does not give you the right to impose your own sense of morality over mine, and over both legal and medical standards of care.In closing, vote no on SF 359.
03-20-2018
Jessica Jansen []
CON
I am opposed to this bill. Iowans deserve access to safe abortion. 70% of Iowans support this access. The passage of such a bill would be dangerous, irresponsible, and would not reflect the views and opinions of the majority of Iowans.
03-20-2018
Michael Shaw [None]
CON
This bill is nothing more than a highly partisan and political effort to subvert a standing Constitutionally protected act ... the right that women have to have an abortion.This right to privacy and right to make medical decisions for themselves has been established law in our country for nearly 50 years.Overwhelmingly, Americans support a women's right to have sovereignty over her own body.I have two daughters and I will never stand by and see their personal freedoms stripped away by misguided legislation based on the outcry of a religious minority.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [552]
CON
7 in 10 Americans believe abortion should be safe and legal. Politicians have no business inserting themselves into decisions between a woman and her doctor!
03-20-2018
Kathy Ritzler [Support PP ]
CON
How awful that the State of Iowa could have the most restrictive law in the country banning safe abortion. A woman's choice is between her and her God and no law should stop her from making her own health care decisions. How in 2018 have we regressed so far and have so many that speak against women and their health care choices. Limiting a women's right to choose is mean and exclusive. Low income women are always going to be the biggest victims from this. I am angry and very sad that we have leaders in Iowa who think so little of women that they would pass this law.
03-20-2018
Patricia Stalter [Iowan]
CON
Women have a constitutional right to privacy concerning their own bodies. Federal law governs these rights. This bill will be struck down in court if signed into law by the governor. Stop interfering in very personal, private, medical decisions.
03-20-2018
Lauren Matysik [Des moines BiCycle Collective]
CON
I am vehemently opposed to the passing of SF 359, especially considering the last minute addition of the Fetal Heartbeat amendment. This bill takes the safety and power over a woman's body out of her hands. This bill leaves a lot of questions about what constitutes a "woman"girls as young as 9 have their periodsand doesn't protect girls and women of rape or incest. It also takes away valuable funding and credibility to programs and establishments that help women who, often times, are in lifethreatening situations. It should be up to the mother to make these lifealtering, difficult choices. Taking that right away from women is a huge step backward and will negatively impact the lives of thousands of women, especially lowincome individuals.
03-20-2018
Amanda DuBose []
CON
As a woman who has previously experienced two miscarriages of featuses I desperately wanted, not having the ability to decide for myself how long t carry a doomed pregnancy would have been incredibly traumatic. All of my pregnancies are high risk and I have to be on blood thinners to protect my health, but they come with risks. This bill would force me to carry a child that wouldnt survive birth at the risk of my own health. No. I also do not want to see a return to preRoe v. Wade when mangled and dying women filled hospital wards because safe abortions were not available. The decision to carry a refinance to term can only be made by the woman affected with the input of her doctor, not legislators.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [Student]
CON
This bill is unconstitutional and represents an undue burden on the right of women to secure their constitutional right to secure a safe and private abortion. SF359 will not prevent abortions in Iowa. Abortion rates remain consistent despite whether they are legal or illegal, so all this bill would do would make them unsafe. The fact that there is no prevision for rape or incest is not only unconstitutional but is morally unjust. It will not dramatically decrease the number of pregnant people who seek abortions and it will not save the lives of countless fetuses. In fact, SF359, if passed and signed into law, will have a body count. People experiencing pregnancy will seek alternative means to terminate the pregnancy. They will search for at home remedies, they will mutilate their bodies, and they will die. SF359 will kill pregnant people. It will ruin lives and destroy families. It will cause bloodshed and heartbreak and will drive Iowans to desperate ends. SF359 is not a prolife bill. It is a direct assault on the lives of Iowans who experience pregnancy.
03-20-2018
Jenny []
CON
Good Afternoon,I've been fortunate enough to attend multiple Iowa Legislature committee meetings regarding women's reproductive health. The part that is most unfortunate is that we are still debating a woman's right to her own body. I've heard the pro life argument many times but no one can logically explain why the care/concern for an unborn child disappears the moment they are born (no support, no insurance, no public assistance, no affordable daycare...the list goes on). This amendment pains me. It's the harshest abortion bill I've seen in my state and it doesn't identify any exceptions for age, rape or incest. It is unfathomable that some find this to be acceptable. Telling a 10 year old rape victim that she is required by law to give birth to her attacker's child is unconscionable. Iowa is better than this...we are better than this. Please vote No on SF359. Thank you
03-20-2018
Anonymous [Public]
CON
Keep abortions legal in the state of Iowa. I ask this as a woman, a sex abuse survivor, and a mother of young daughters. We should never be forced into doing something we do not want.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
I believe that women should have access to safe and affordable abortions.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
This bill would outlaw abortions from the moment a fetal heartbeat can be detected through an abdominal ultrasound. This is before most women even know they are pregnant! What is even more problematic for me is that there are no definitions for what defines a woman, no exceptions for rape, incest or fetal anomalies... As a survivor of rape, that really hurts me that, had I gotten pregnant after an already traumatizing experience, I would be forced against my will through even more trauma. This bill is just another restriction against women. It will do nothing to stop abortions. Anyone who thinks it will has not done their research. Please reject SF 359.
03-20-2018
Thomas Wilson []
PRO
Thank you for getting this bill this far. I can't stress enough how critical it is to ban abortion and the sale of human tissue. These are the acts of a backwards and evil society. Please press on and get these evil acts banned quickly. The quicker it is passed the more lives will be saved.
03-20-2018
Kathy Warren
CON
I am very much apposed to this bill. I feel it a waste of my legislators time to continue to go on debating this and other prochoice legislation. Please listen to the MAJORITY of Iowans and get on with the other work you have to do. Many women do not even know they are pregnant at 6 weeks. This is dangerous legislation.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [Student ]
CON
This bill is unconstitutional. It places an undue burden on the women that restricts her constitutional right to secure a safe abortion. The rates of abortion remain stable whether they are legal or illegal, so this bill will only make them more unsafe. The fact that there is no prevision for rape or incest is not only legally unjust but also morally unjust. This will be one of the strictest abortion laws in the country and is directly against the precedent of Roe v Wade. SF359 will not prevent abortions in Iowa. It will not dramatically decrease the number of pregnant people who seek abortions and it will not save the lives of countless fetuses. In fact, SF359, if passed and signed into law, will have a body count. People experiencing pregnancy will seek alternative means to terminate the pregnancy. They will search for at home remedies, they will mutilate their bodies, and they will die. SF359 will kill pregnant people. It will ruin lives and destroy families. It will cause bloodshed and heartbreak and will drive Iowans to desperate ends. SF359 is not a prolife bill. It is a direct assault on the lives of Iowans who experience pregnancy.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [None]
CON
To tack the heartbeat bill onto this bill is unconstitutional. It will cost Iowa tax payers money to fight it in court. Not to mention the tax dollars that are already being spent to fight the unconstitutional bill that was put forth last session. No more!
03-20-2018
Stacy powell [Self]
CON
I oppose this dangerous bill. Politicians have no business making medical decisions. Politicians are not medical professionals nor do they have to live with the consequences they are forcing on others. Rape, incest, maternal health and body autonomy require a woman to make a CHOICE for herself, her body, her life and her personal belief system. Someone so far removed from the impact has no right to insert and force their beliefs on to another human being. Women deserve to exercise their right to informed consent. Lawmakers supporting this bill should be ashamed to support something so drastic and dangerous.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [Individual]
CON
Do not impose youur political and religious views on a womans ability to parent. If passed many lowincome single women will face dramatic challenges along with the children who are born. I was a single mother and had to hear my son cry that his father probably wanted to see him. I didnt have the heart to say this wasnt true. I was so poor that one evening I had a choice either to buy a can of green beans to have for supper or buy a roll of toilet paper. I bought the can of green beans and used wash clothes for wiping. You talk about feeling down and out and being depressed. This is what woman face. Please dont let woman have to endure the feeling of helpless like I did.
03-20-2018
Amanda Grutzmacher []
CON
I support the rights of women to terminate a pregnancy, and the use of fetal tissues, cells, etc. for research purposes regardless of how those tissues, etc. became available. Continued efforts to restrict abortion access are unconstitutional as upheld by the Supreme Court, and a waste of tax payer money. Restrictions on use of fetal tissues, etc. unnecessarily hold back medical progress.
03-20-2018
Anonymous
CON
Please put a stop to the 6week ban on safe, legal abortion in the state of Iowa. Now an amendment to SF 359, the 6week ban threatens to set reproductive rights back by decades, and that is not something anyone should want for our state.This bill would ban nearly all safe, legal abortion by making it illegal to perform an abortion the moment a fetal heartbeat is detected before many women even know they are pregnant with very narrow exception for medical emergency. This legislation would intentionally challenge Roe v. Wade and interfere with Iowans' personal, private medical decisions.
03-20-2018
Sue thayer [Iowa Right To Life]
PRO
2024 NW 92nd CourtSuite 14Clive IA 50325
03-20-2018
Anonymous [Individual]
CON
I AM AGAINST THIS 6WEEK BILL. MOST WOMEN DO NOT EVEN KNOW THEY ARE PREGNANT AT 6 WEEKS. ANYONE WHO AGREES WITH THIS BILL IS SUPPORTING REPRODUCTIVE ENSLAVEMENT OF WOMEN. A 6 WEEK BAN IS ESSENTIALLY THE SAME THING AS BANNING ABORTIONS ALL TOGETHER. I WILL NEVER STOP FIGHTING THIS AND ANY KIND OF TYRANNICAL BUREAUCRACY.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [NA]
CON
There is no reason anyone should be restricting anything that people decide to do with fetal tissue. We use cadaver parts everyday to better the lives of the living. I don't understand why we shouldn't have the same luxury with fetal tissue.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
The fetal tissue part of the bill seems unnecessary to me due to laws and penalties already in place. The fetal heartbeat part of the bill is illegal and will tie the state up in a lawsuit that we cannot afford. At 6 weeks it is not a fetus but an embryo. Also women's health should not be legislated. It is between the woman and her physician. Such a decision is painful and not taken lightly. As a 66 year old I remember the days of coat hanger abortions. They were dangerous and often tragic. As a nurse I have taken care of people with severe handicaps. While some of these were loved and cared for others suffered a life of physical and emotional pain. I have also watched a friends baby live out it's 3 month life at University of Iowa Hospital. It had multiple surgeries during that time, was often crying and in pain. It was extremely physicality and mentally handicapped. There are women who would have aborted this baby early on if they'd known it would be born to such lack of viability and suffering. This would have been done out of love. There are pregnancies where the fetus dies in the womb. The mother should be able to abort this fetus and not have to carry it to term. As I said, women's health should be between her and her doctor.
03-20-2018
stacey glenn bradley []
CON
The GOP needs to stay OUT of medical decisions between women and their doctors! If you think it's a spiritual matter, then THAT is between women and their God...spelled GOD, NOT GOP! This will not limit abortions it will only limit SAFE abortions. And what about women who have been assaulted? They have to give birth? Are YOU gonna help pay for and raise those kids? Oh, and let's talk about GIRLS being assaulted...because at 7, ya can't give consent. Drop this whole matter and stay out of women's medical decisions!
03-20-2018
Brooke Lovelace Hundling [NA]
CON
Please do not support SF359. Politicians should not be deciding what is right for women health.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
Restricting abortions will force women in need to take matters into their own hands. "Protecting" a fetus WILL cause harm to desperate women. Have respect and trust in women to make this decision about their bodies for themselves.
03-20-2018
Berkleigh Mostrom-Lawler [None]
CON
This bill is completely unnecessary, as the sale of fetal body parts is already illegal and is not happening in Iowa. This is antichoice propaganda designed to control womens bodies and take away our civil rights. Keep your laws off my body. Period.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
This bill won't prevent abortions. All evidence shows women will just find alternative methods. These are often risky and increases the risk of losing the woman's life as well. The fetus won't survive if the woman dies anyway. Abortions are legal until viability. A heartbeat isn't viability. It's just an organ. A fetus can't survive at 6 weeks. It doesn't have brain activity. Most women don't even know they are pregnant at this point. Respect women's right to choose. It's legal. It's been to the supreme court. Don't take this step backwards.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
Women have the to do what they feel is right. Who are you to take that right away. Do something productive, go after guns and the NRA
03-20-2018
Judy Sebern [Female ]
CON
Women demand our rights to control our bodies and our health!!
03-20-2018
Anonymous [Personal]
CON
Please DO NOT support sf 359 which would ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat is heard, usually at 6 weeks, before many women even know that they are pregnant.
03-20-2018
Danny Carroll [THE FAMILY LEADER]
PRO
On behalf of THE FAMiLY LEADER I encourage passage of this bill and the committee amendment.Life is a right given to mankind by our Creator. It is the right and proper role of this state government to "secure" that right and protect all life, unborn or otherwise.At THE FAMiLY LEADER we recognize and affirm that unborn child "she is a baby"!Thank you,Danny Carroll
03-20-2018
Nathan Oppman [The Family Leader Foundation ]
PRO
I fully support this legislation and any legislation that protects innocent life from the moment of conception. The little heartbeats of unborn children are precious. I encourage legislators to ask the question: what is life and when and why should it be protected? God creates life and He has given government the responsibility to protect it. I urge support for this legislation.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [N/A]
CON
I stand with fellow citizens against this bill SF 359. I cannot even imagine how this bill reached this level, but since it has, I wanted to share my disdain. I have never had to make a decision like this, but I cannot imagine someone else making the decision for me. At this point in our history, it is legal and right for a woman to have a choice, and putting a law like this into action is socially irresponsible, especially given that it would be repealed at the federal level waste of time, effort and resources. A personal view does not equate to fact. I am a strong Christian woman, and I lean moderate on most issues. I check my views with my faith, but I cannot imagine forcing someone to carry a child to term, especially under extreme circumstances. The harshness of this bill does not even allow for these circumstances to be addressed. Until we can show compassion to both the unborn and the mothers, we are missing the mark.
03-20-2018
Susan mrzena []
CON
At no time should Iowa lawmakers allow religion to influence crafting a law. If a fetus cannot survive outside the womb then it should be allowed to be terminated.
03-20-2018
Susan Stroope []
CON
I am grateful that as a mom of 4 with a chronically ill husband and as the chief wage earner for my family I could make the choice to terminate a pregnancy that was the result of a failed birth control method. My choice had no ramification on another person's decision to make a different choice. If you oppose abortion, fine, don't ever have one, but don't impose your personal belief on others who don't share your beliefs about a woman's right to decide on turning her body over to a pregnancy.
03-20-2018
Derek Johnston []
CON
this is a bad bill, don't attack womens' rights.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
PRO
Please ban the sale of fetal body parts and ban abortions after the baby's heartbeat can be detected. Every life has a right to live. Thank you and God bless you. Praying for each of you in this decision.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [None]
CON
This bill puts the attention on the fetus when the focus needs to be on the reproductive rights of the woman. There is great disagreement among medical professionals when life begins. Women need to be able to make medical decisions without government interference. It takes two to make a baby. This bill holds women to a higher standard than men. The government does not interfere in a man's medical decisions.Why are we not holding men to a higher standard?
03-20-2018
Annah Hackett []
CON
It is not possible to outlaw abortion; it is only possible to outlaw SAFE abortion. This is about providing safe, legal healthcare to all people, regardless of gender.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [DMU]
CON
Providing safe health care procedures is a basic right that every individual is entitled to. Taking this away goes against America's core values and has potentially lethal effects for women everywhere. It is time we start focusing on actual medical needs versus personal beliefs.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
Please vote no to this unconditional bill. Decisions about woman's healthcare is between a woman and her doctor. This bill makes me sick and afraid for my 14 year old daughter. Rape happens... and would want her to have choices available in those instances.
03-20-2018
Shannon stack [None]
CON
I am a woman, mother, wife, friend, and democrat. State and federal laws should NOT be allowed to make decisions for a womans body. I am not in support of this bill SF 359
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
This is a horrible bill for all involved. There are no exclusions for rape or incest, no age limit on children who could be pregnant and forced to have their baby. Not to mention many women dont know they are pregnant until after 6 weeks. Hopefully, the Republicans will vote no on this horrendous bill.
03-20-2018
Stacia Zink []
CON
I firmly oppose this bill. Legislators are NOT doctors. They have no business dealing with this deeply personal issue. They do not understand all of the consequences of this type of legislation. This will cause immense pain for women with wanted, but nonviable pregnancies who are already going through the most difficult time of their lives. This will cause desperate women to undergo dangerous procedures. Reproductive health care decisions should be made between women and their doctors. Not overreaching politicians.
03-20-2018
Michelle Burgan [Member of the public]
CON
As a 16year old, I had a miscarriage. I was about 68 weeks at that time. Had I known I was pregnant, I would have wanted to know I had a safer and legal option to make a CHOICE TO HAVE A CHILD OR NOT. I am appalled that this same choice may be taken from my granddaughter! I want her and all women to have a CHOICE and to continue to have a VOICE in this process!!
03-20-2018
Ruth Thompson [Citizen]
CON
Women, not the Iowa General Assembly, should have access to safe and legal abortion. Last year the Iowa General Assembly took away access to birth control by defunding Planned Parenthood and this year youre trying to outlaw the last resort birth control. Women will have absolutely no rights to make decisions about their bodies if the GOP majority has their way. We know who is responsible for this war on women We remember. We vote.
03-20-2018
Jennifer Hampton []
CON
This bill most certainly will not prevent abortions from happening. But it WILL prevent them from happening safely. Abortion may not be something that people approve of, but it's been happening since the beginning of time. Many women have died or been permanently injured by not having a licensed professional perform the procedure.Even in the safest of abortions, I seriously doubt the woman is "happy" she did it, but every woman deserves to have the option available to her and make the choice for herself.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [N/A]
CON
This bill is not just bad for women, it is bad for children. Years of research tell us that children born when their parents are ready for them, into loving, stable homes with financial and social resources, those children do better. When women cannot exercise control over their reproduction, more children are born into circumstances that do not mark them for success. Parents in bad or abusive relationships, parents who are not emotionally ready for parenthood, who are not financially ready, or who simply just do not want a child are not equipped to raise a child. If you cannot stand up for the rights of women, at the very least think of the kinds of homes you want for children.
03-20-2018
Anne Spencer []
CON
Adding amendments to this bill to limit the ability to make decisions about a fetus is illadvised for so many reasons. In the first 1216 weeks of a pregnancy, the chances are relatively high for medical issues that affect the health of both mother and child. Allowing those qualified to make hard choices are the mother, the family and the doctors, not legislators. It is time to recognize how dangerous politics have become and what warrants involvement of our elected officials. Please vote NO to this dangerous bill.
03-20-2018
Morgan [Self]
CON
I'm a suburban mother of three in Johnston, IA. I would encourage the legislative body to vote down this bill. It is a blatant government overreach into the lives of women. The government has no business deciding health matters for Iowans. I'd like the government to stay out my health choices.It seems that your stated goal is to protect the lives of children I would encourage you to take more statistically robust routes, such as making access to family planning available, helping women complete their education, and supporting Iowa's DHS and foster care systems, which are dramatically underfunded and in need of stronger support. If you care to expand your concerns to the elderly, please reinstate funding for nursing home oversight, so our vulnerable seniors can live with dignity and safety.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [Household]
CON
I believe abortion should be safe and legal. Any issues or decisions regarding a woman's body should solely lie between that woman and her doctor! Thank you for your careful consideration and for listening.
03-20-2018
Devon Murphy-Petersen []
CON
A woman's body, no matter her age, is her responsibility, and her responsibility only. The choice to bear to term or to abort a pregnancy can only be decided by each individual woman.
03-20-2018
Sara Faas [N/A]
CON
As a later in life mom this bill is particularly distressing for me. We have a higher risk of complications and genetic problems and this ban would stop me from being able to make a choice regarding continuing a possibly non viable pregnancy. While I would hope to never need that choice, it is unconstitutional and inhumane to put mothers in that position. Furthermore, a law like this would actually deter our family from trying to conceive another child, as it would be uncertain if we would be able to receive the appropriate medical care needed if complications were to arise in the pregnancy.I also think it is deplorable that when Rep Shannon Lundgren was asked if she thought a 7 year old who was raped and became pregnant should have to carry the baby to term she replied that the girl would not be able to have an abortion because another life is at stake. The message being sent with this comment is the health, mental well being, and self worth of a 7 year old victim is negligible, and that it is ok to continue sending victims a message that their bodies are not their own to protect or control. In a state where we have had so many high profile child deaths at the hands of their parents, it is disgusting and disappointing that lawmakers are wasting time on unconstitutional laws rather than creating laws that prevent more Natalie Finns, Sabrina Rays and Sterling Kohens.I am disappointed I cannot come in person to be heard, but I hope my thoughts make it to the people who will be listening tonight.
03-20-2018
Patricia Devine Thompson [woman, Mother, grandmother, aunt two wonderful women]
PRO
I am a very definite Con vote and I need to state that because it was not clear which of the above was pro in which was con. I do not want to see this passed! The decision on whether or not I woman should have an abortion is her decision and hers alone. It should not be made by room full of men who arbitrarily just decide what they think women should do. It is something that needs to be decided between the patient and her doctor Not the government! I have volunteered for over 30 years with Planned Parenthood and various teen clinics where I have lived. These types of organizations serve a huge purpose and service to communities. They educate and allow people to make responsible decisions about their bodies and whether not they want to become parents. I have gone to high schools and talk to groups of kids many times about their sexuality and being responsible for it, both as it relates to resulting pregnancy as well as unprotected sex and disease possibilities. Legalizing abortion has not increase the number of abortions performed in this Country. It has actually decreased, because it is taken care of quite often before hand. It is just another example of how when people know better, they do better! Nobody should ever decide for a woman whether or not shes allowed to have an abortion! That is a decision that should only ever be made by the woman and her physician. Legalizing abortion is not truly increase the number of abortions It has simply decreased the number of women who die from them due to unsanitary, back alley procedures done by people who are not licensed! Please give this a lot of thought before you cast your votes on this bad law. I am a woman, a Seventy yearold mother, Grandmother, aunt and champion for women. I have lived through the full circle of this issue, and believe me women are so much better off being educated, responsible women who make decisions for their own bodies. I thank you very much for listening to me and I seriously pray that you make the right decision here, for all of us. Very sincerely, Patricia Devine Thompson
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
This bill is a disgusting overreach of government into what should be a private decision for a woman. I didn't even know I was pregnant until 8 works. You will be sentencing women to death if this passes. Beyond that, passing this will affect the University of Iowa's ability to compete, as they will no longer be able to train doctors as ObGyns. No allowances for rape or incest is unconscionable. Iowa should be better than this archaic bill, which is unconstitutional in every way.
03-20-2018
Lauren Barron []
CON
I oppose this bill fiercely. It takes away a womans right to bodily autonomy and without that we are nothing. I have personally had to face this decision and while my choice was not abortion I was very fortunate to have had a choice at all. I did not know I was pregnant until after 6 weeks gestation and if this bill were in place I wouldnt have had the option to abort. It is very important to women everywhere that they have ownership over their own bodies and can choose their own path in life based on their own judgement and needs.
03-20-2018
Frances Rockey []
CON
I will be watching for consistency in "prolife" decisions going forward: fully funding of the DHS, fully funding of K12 education, fully funding addressing the needs of those mentally ill, fully funding inspection of nursing homes, etc, etc. Anything less is hypocrisy."Life" does not end at birth some of us would maintain that's when actual human life really begins. What are we doing to support the care of life after birth??? And making absolutely no provision in this bill for the mental and physical wellbeing of "life" which already exists (e.g, children who've become pregnant through rape or incest, emotionally unstable or handicapped individuals) is in my opinion morally reprehensible and unconscionably judgmental.
03-20-2018
Kate Rose [NA / citizen]
CON
This is terrible legislation on so many levels. The majority of IA residents are opposed. The majority of women are opposed. Victims of incest and rape are doubly assaulted first by the perpetrator and then by the state. It is long pSt time for our legislators to realize, accept and support that women know what is best for them. It is time the legislators do what is compassionate and medically wise for children who Ave been mistreated by boys/men.
03-20-2018
Bryce Smith []
CON
I oppose this legislation as it forces our government to dictate the relationship between a doctor and their patient. Every Iowan deserves respect by their government and this bill tells Iowans that they cannot make important decisions for themselves.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
I am opposed to this bill as the redefinition of life is not consistent with what it actually takes to sustain life. It places an undo burden on women to carry a pregnancy to term, even if later testing confirms the fetus is not viable outside the womb. Additionally it takes bodily autonomy away from the woman for no other reason than to give birth, after which the child is not guaranteed the same protections as they were inside the womb.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
Honorable Representative, You are in a position to fight for your constituency and be their voice on SF359. I implore you to vote NO. I encourage you to read the article about the Ankeny man who was charged with raping a teenager from age 12 14 years old. Imagine if this would have resulted in a pregnancy. After having all control taken from her in the most demeaning way, she would have to face a pregnancy and put her life at risk at such a young age. SF359 makes NO exemptions for rape or incest. This bill is bad for women and our state. I come from a family of 5 women, 3 of us were sexually assaulted and one resulted in a pregnancy. My mother was raped by her father throughout her adolescence. Women are unable to "protect" themselves fully from pregnancy and have over 50 years of life to spend trying not to get pregnant. Bills like these are cruel and inhumane. When I looked for an OB/Gyn during my first pregnancy when I moved to Des Moines in 2010, it was very difficult to find someone with an opening. If you vote yes and the Republicans play politics with our state, the women and children of Iowa will suffer. We will have even less OB/Gyns come to practice here after already being one of the lowest paid in the nation. We are giving them NO reason to make Iowa home. Now, the entire OB program at UofI is at risk if this legislation moves forward. So after forcing women into giving birth, there will be even less access to healthcare and more women will be a risk. Women and children have already suffered enough after Managed Medicaid moved in. Then, Republicans cam after our access to birth control. Did you know their are barely any clinics left who will place IUDs in women here in Iowa? Mercy is one of the largest providers in rural Iowa for distributing birth control now, and they will not place an IUD in a woman. This is the most effective longterm form of birth control and goes undetected for women who are not in relationships where they are able to be on birth control. With all of the spending cuts to social service programs and the increased cuts to their budgets this session, this is completely irresponsible legislation.I beg you to listen to women in your constituency and vote no! At the very least, if you feel you can't vote no, please abstain your vote and demonstrate you are able to listen to the voices of Iowa women.Thank you for your time,Lesley ChristensenIowa Woman with two daughters
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
I do not support this bill. I am personally opposed to abortion but abortions will happen. I would like them to be safe and clean. I do support more bills that will educate people about human life; financially and emotionally support pregnant women; support child care and educational opportunity to women who find themselves with a problem pregnancy. AND return funding to clinics for birth control options!
03-20-2018
Catherine Dietz-Kilen [Ms.]
CON
Like the overwhelming majority of Iowans, I strongly believe that abortions should continue to be safe and legal in Iowa. Legislators should permit women to make their own decisions about their own bodies. I oppose SF 359.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
7 in 10 Americans believe abortion should be safe and legal, including me. Politicians have no business inserting themselves into decisions between a woman and her doctor, as this violates the womans rift to privacy. It is also irresponsible for Iowa Republicans to push a bill like this through when our budget has no room to pay legal fees to defend an unconstitutional law.
03-20-2018
Michelle Lange [None]
CON
I'm firmly against this bill. The use of fetal tissue is critical for the advancement of medicine and federal law already bans profiting from it. The addition of the 6week abortion ban is a violation of a women's right to privacy, the ability to make medical decisions on her own, and it's unconstitutional. This is a waste of taxpayers dollars.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
I oppose this bill and believe that it helps no one. Please vote against it.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
Strongly opposed to the abortion ban and am incensed that Delay has been invited to speak. Iowans should have the floor, not a former olitician from Texas who left office after a corruption scandal.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [Ms.]
CON
As you may know, the state of Iowa has a serious OBGYN physician shortage. As of 2014, the state of Iowa had 239 OBGYN physicians serving a population of 1,251,057 women according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. 66 of Iowa's 99 counties did not have any OBGYNs in 2014 and Iowa only has one residency program which graduates 5 OBGYN physicians per year. The passage of this bill could result in loss of accreditation of this program. As a medical student and future OBGYN healthcare provider, serious restrictions on scope of practice such as this bill are factors I and other future physicians consider when deciding where to continue our education and where to practice for our careers. This bill could serve to make OBGYN practitioners much less likely to come to practice in Iowa and would force OBGYNs in training to leave the state to continue their education. These factors would certainly drastically reduce the number of OBGYNs practicing in the state, resulting in decreased access of care to all reproductive health services for women in Iowa.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [Bounds]
CON
To whom it concerns,I strongly oppose bill SF 359, in which abortions after 6 weeks old will be made illegal.Women need to have a choice. Medical abortions occur in a small minority of pregnancies. Without choice, women and girls who have been raped, sexually abused, victims of contraceptive malfunction, or who are medically atriskwill be forced to either carry an unwanted child to term, or harm themselves.Anyone else regularly having abortions should on that account alone, NOT be forced to have children. It is not the states or federal governments business. These women do not want children.Autonomy is the cornerstone of freedom. Please, focus on improving the lives of children in povertylifting up the people, and trust women to know their own minds, bodies, and aptitude for parenthood.Most sincerely,Tara
03-20-2018
Anonymous [Iowa district voter ]
CON
please do not prohibit the rights of females and their own bodies. Nobody likes abortion. But lawmakers are not the people to be making this decision for us. We can make this gut wrenching decision on our own. ESPECIALLY in cases of invest and rape. SERIOUSLY.
03-20-2018
Dennis L. Smith []
CON
This bill is a travesty and an affront to the independence of every woman in Iowa. Further, it is unconstitutional on its face, and will be struck down in short order in the courtsincluding the U.S. Supreme Court as currently constituted. We have greater priorities for our taxpayer dollars than to fritter them away defending a frivolous law that would nonetheless have deadly consequences if actually implements. VOTE NO.
03-20-2018
Nathan Erickson []
CON
This bill will install yet another impediment between a woman and her doctor. As the governments role should be to strengthen the healthcare of all its citizens, based off a scientifically proven method, rather than a religious interpretation flying in the face of the principle of separation of Church & State, this bill should not be allowed to pass.Further, Iowa ranks near the bottom of the United States in number of OBGYN physicians. This bill will cause the only OBGYN program in the state to lose accreditation and therefore, to shut down. This bill is reckless and harmful. I encourage you to vote NO.
03-20-2018
Virginia Showman [No affiliation]
CON
This bill is an assault on women's reproductive rights. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the fetal body parts. It is illegal to sell them now. In an attempt to control women, it also creates an environment of fear for those who don't have the means to leave the state to seek a safe abortion. It will not stop abortions, as has been proven throughout history. Safe access is vital. Without it, abortions will still happen, but women will die. Threatening doctors will do nothing but create back alley clinics. Enough with this. Spend the funds on pregnancy prevention with education and access to birth control.
03-20-2018
Mary Fox []
CON
I am opposed to the attempt to ban safe and legal abortion in Iowa. This attack on womens reproductive rights is unconscionable and unconstitutional. Passing this will cost more of our precious resources in legal battles. Iowans want their legislators to listen to their constituents instead of forcing their own religious beliefs on us. Give women the credit to make their own choices regarding their bodies
03-20-2018
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
I am against this regressive and instructive bill because the legislature should not be making decisions about MY body or anyone elses when the Supreme Court has clearly stated that abortion is a constitutional right. Its time for our elected representatives to stop cherry picking which constitutional rights they are going to honor and respect. This is a clearly unconstitutional bill that WE will be forced to spend millions defending in court. Its wasteful. Finally, since when is a heartbeat the indicator of viable life? That is not our standard for end of life procedures for actual people. That standard is brain activity. It should not be the standard for a cluster of cells that wont have brain activity until well beyond six weeks of gestation.
03-20-2018
Linda Wormley []
CON
I am horrified and appalled at the attempt of government to insert itself into a most private decision and one of the most difficult decisions a woman can face. Neither should the government insert itself into the medical realities faced by any woman or the treatment relationship between a woman and her doctor. I remember what it was like before abortion was legalized. The women who lost their lives, the women who lost their fertility, the women who suffered from horrific infections, women with resources who traveled to get a legal abortion elsewhere. I also remember my friend who has inspired me for years. She had a legal abortion and was so grateful. She volunteered as a human shield during the horrible hateful actions outside Planned Parenthood Clinics in Kansas City on the 80s. She put her life on the line to protect others. Until viability outside of womb exists, women deserve respect acknowledging they are capable of making decisions for themselves. After all a pregnancy is 13 times more life threatening than a legal abortion. Vote against this bill. We deserve better.
03-20-2018
Jennifer Watson []
CON
Leave womens bodys alone. Try being prolife and supporting our kids once they are here. If a man was the one giving birth this wouldnt even be a consideration. Stop trying to control us. We have our own minds.
03-20-2018
Bob Christenson []
CON
Jailing our sisters, mothers, wives, grandmothers, nieces and cousins will not prevent one single abortion. Put your efforts towards education and improving access family planning and safe birth control.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
This bill does nothing to protect mother and child. The extensive terminology of the fetus and punishments of a doctor infringing the potential law mean that women and girls will suffer if they get pregnant from rape or incest. They become less than human in this law. It's disgusting to think Iowa would consider such demeaning language towards women.The bill also does little to explain or define situations of miscarriage. It is worrisome that there is such care to tell us what an 'unbornchild' is, but little about the circumstances about natural loss. How long before this is abused? How long before it's used to punish a woman by claiming: "Yeah, but I bet she wanted to abort."?This is legislation that shows no trace of real compassion to the situation, but rigid and dangerous dogmatic ideals. It gives Iowans nothing to really improve our lives, only frightening domination.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [Ms.]
CON
Personal medical decisions should be left up to an individual to discuss with their family and physicians. Government has not right to tell somebody what they can do or can't with their body.
03-20-2018
Jena Walls []
CON
SPEAK UP FOR WOMENS RIGHTS! WE DO NOT NEED TO GO BACK IN TIME. IT IS MY BODY! MY RIGHT!
03-20-2018
Anonymous [Alternatives Pregnancy Center, Waterloo]
PRO
As someone who is adopted (out of the worst of circumstances) and works every day in the pregnancy center arena I believe deeply in the sanctity of life. I am willing to share should the opportunity arise.
03-20-2018
Karen Herwig [Retired]
CON
The only people allowed to speak at tonight's hearing should be Iowans. If it is true that a speaker who was once a US Representative from another state is being brought in to bolster the POV of one side or another and is on the roster to speak this is totally wrong. Since when does the Iowa Legislature's hearing protocol include a lobbyist from another state? We have Iowa voices on both sides of many issues you consider. Listen to Iowans, not Texans or others brought in by Iowans who apparently feel inadequate to speak for themselves and their point(s) of view.
03-20-2018
Lori Hunt [Planned Parenthood]
CON
Let's embark on the radical journey of trusting women and their healthcare providers to make decisions that are best for them. It is blatantly unconstitutional and will be challenged immediately if it is passed into law, costing the taxpayers some serious money. Let's support women. Let's support doctors. Let's support the childern who are already here by adequately funding education, DHS and the like.Let's not move backward, Iowa. We are better than this. Trust women. Trust me. We will not go back. We will never go back.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [Mirus LLC]
CON
Thank you for your dedication in serving Iowans. Your job is never easy and I appreciate your hard work.I ask that you take a few moments to review my email and vote AGAINST SF359. (Heartbeat Abortion Ban)I request that you please support that ANY personal health decision affecting Iowans be made by the patient and their doctor, not our men and women sitting in the chairs of Congress. I argue that no matter the opinion of outsiders, ALL health decisions should be between a patient and a doctor. The determination of whether and when a fetus should or should not be aborted should remain in the hands of qualified licensed doctors and their patients. Congress should not overstep their power and enter into every doctors office in Iowa to forceably make these decisions for Iowans. The decision to advise on the options for pregnancy needs the education and experience of medical professionals. Laws should provide standards for safe and quality medical care, not make diagnosis and treatments to patients. Licensed medical practitioners are set with that duty and responsibility to their patient. Ultimately the patient should be awarded the right to make this medical decision for themselves after given medical options from a certified, licensed medical professional. Lawmakers cannot possibly foresee all the potential issues, many life threatening, for every situation on this subject. Therefore, making support of this bill irresponsible and dangerous to women's health.My request is that our honorable legislators not act as doctors. Keep the decision to continue with pregnancy in the hands of the doctors, mothers and fathers. It may seem odd to add men to this equation since it is typically a topic geared to women. However, there are thousands of fathers as well as mothers that SF 359 will impact negatively. There are innumerable situations that this bill does not consider, such as: rape, incest, mortality of the mother, mortality of the baby, disease, birth defects, negative economic impact in supporting unwanted babies or supporting babies that have horribly severe illness or handicaps to name a few.It is important to put aside our own personal opinions on this very controversial and emotional subject. It is very important to keep the decision of abortion in the hands of the experts (doctors) and their patients (mothers and fathers). Therefore, I again ask you to vote AGAINST SF 359.I thank you so much for taking your time to consider my request. Thank you again for your service to Iowans.
03-20-2018
Charlotte Gude []
CON
I am not in favor of this bill. This bill puts Iowans in jeopardy and takes away our rights to bodily autonomy. People should be able to choose what they want to do with their own body and this bill inhibits that ability.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
I believe abortion s/b safe and legal and do not support the "heartbeat" bill. Am also concerned about the impact on the ob/gyn program at the U of I.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
Any medical decisions should be made between a patient and her medical provider. Restrictions to an honest, trusting relationship between the patient and provider compromise women's health and safety. Restrictions on abortion don't stop abortion, they just lead to desperate women seeking less safe options, and risking their own lives as a result. To be prolife, people need to also protect the lives of living women. In a time when so many are requesting less regulation in every other area, I ask that you apply this idea to women's bodies, as well, and let women and their doctors make the best decision for their health and wellbeing.
03-20-2018
Karen Lauer []
CON
I am a woman of faith. My religious denomination does not believe independent life begins at conception. I believe a fetus is a potential life, wholly dependent on the mothers body, not an individual life deserving of rights to supersede those of the woman upon whose life it depends. I respect that other religions hold differing views; and this is why I am glad the u.s. is not a theocracy. Our laws should not be based on or derived from religious beliefs and that is exactly what this bill would do legislate religious beliefs. As a woman and a mother of four, I had the right to choose motherhood, and I am horrified that my daughters would lose the right to body autonomy to make reproductive health decisions for themselves. I urge you to vote against this bill.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
This is entirely unnecessary. It will limit medical research while failing to limit abortions (which need to remain legal anyway). Please stop wasting time with bills like this and start focusing on protecting Iowans' pensions, health insurance, clean water, and other things that desperately need attention.
03-20-2018
Sukanya Makkapati []
CON
I am totally agai st this bill. Will setback womens healthcare by years and it will be very dangerous!
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
The decision about a pregnancy must remain private between that person, her loved ones and her provider. There can be no exceptions outside a legal guardianship situation. Abortion remains a safe, legal procedure and should be one of those options.
03-20-2018
Erin M Leiran []
CON
When a heartbeat can be detected does not make a fetus a citizen with protected rights. Perhaps we should be looking at better health care for women and making birth control easier and easier to obtain as that has been proven to lower the abortion rate. However, politics have no business being in my doctor's office. We need to allow for women, and families, who are citizens with protected rights, to have the right to make really tough choices that are right for them, their situation, and their health.Also fetal body parts are not being sold. You are wasting Iowa Taxpayer dollars that are very limited already. Perhaps you should be focusing on how to help out DHS and to help the needs of families across Iowa.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [Self]
CON
This is an attack on womens rights, our economy and the constitution. This legislation is so extreme and set forth by religious ideological nutjobs who decry that we have too much government in our lives but then believe that they can push their religiousity on everyone. This violates the separation o church and state. It also harms the University of Iowas OB/GYN program. I dont understand how this kind of cruel, extremist legislation can be proposed. You are not pro life, you are pro birth. Shame on you.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
I strongly oppose the stealth amendment to SF359, banning abortions when a fetal heartbeat is detected. Choosing to end a pregnancy, for whatever reasons, is difficult enough without legislators finding ways to make it a financial & logistical nightmare.
03-20-2018
Marie Herring [citizen]
CON
It is impossible to grant rights to the unborn without infringing upon the already established rights of the 'host,' woman. Therefore, this bill is unconstitutional. It also goes against equal protection laws, as far as I am aware there are no equal/comparable laws regulating men's reproductive health and rights.If we were to grant rights to the unborn, does that mean visiting fetuses are eligible for U.S. citizenship? If a couple from another country visiting the U.S. and conceive while visiting is that fetus a citizen of the U.S.? Men need to address their own culture and issues of rape and incest. Let them start there.
03-20-2018
Penny Hanson [Self]
CON
I oppose this bill as it is not in the best interest of women and their futures.
03-20-2018
Kim Handlos [Mrs.]
PRO
Please let the heart beat bill pass. I pray this committee will be for the unborn child and not for those who don't respect life. Thank you and God bless.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
This will not stop abortions after 6 weeksit will only stop SAFE & LEGAL abortions.This is an attack on women's sovereignty over their own bodies.This is EXTREME GOVERNMENT OVERREACH that would never be tolerated if it pertained to men's bodies.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [None]
CON
I am opposed to this bill. This is a decision that should be between a woman and her doctor.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
I do not understand how people who supposedly support small government with a limited roll in the lives of Iowans can vote to put government into the most intimate and personal part of the lives of every female of Iowan of child bearing age. The hypocrisy stuns me. I will vote, campaign and donate to defeat EVERY supporter of this bill. I remember before Rowe v. Wade and will fight like hell to be sure we never go back.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
I am unable to attend this hearing,however I am definitely opposed to this bill. the government should allow safe and quality healthcare regarding womens health, and should not interfere with it!!!
03-20-2018
Anonymous [Mr.]
CON
I do not support this bill.It is unconstitutional. It comes from a religious viewpoint. There is separation of church and state in our government. My personal belief is that this should be a private matter between family members and their physician.
03-20-2018
Adelaide Zwick [Planned Parenthood of the Heartland]
CON
This bill places an undue burden on Iowa women and will undoubtedly result in an increase in unsafe abortions and deaths of Iowa women. Show compassion for your constituents and vote no on this unfair and unsafe bill.
03-20-2018
Michele Guinn [Individual]
CON
This is ridiculous! Leave women alone! Republican's believe people should take care of themselves so this attack on personal rights goes against everything Republicans stand for. This link http://www.newkidscenter.com/BabyFruitSize.htmlshows a 7 week cluster of cells is the size of a BLUEBERRY. Regardless of the size when a heartbeat can be detected it's no one's business but the woman's.
03-20-2018
Susan Newton []
CON
I am opposed to this bill. I believe every woman is entirely capable of making decisions regarding her body without interference from the Iowa legislature.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
I oppose this bill because it is pro birth, not pro life. Having access to safe abortions is a necessity for women's healthcare. To be clear, I believe in the sanctity of life, and that abortion should only be a last resort. I also have PCOS. Among many things, this also means that I don't know if I will ever be able to have children. The thought of being raped and forced to carry that baby, before I could conceive with my husband, is horrifying. It would not be a miracle of life, but a physical and emotional burden, and a reminder of the hatred and assault that had occurred to me simply because I am a woman. Those who commit rape have no more regard for women as people than those who force women to carry dangerous or unwanted pregnancies. We will not be reduced to vessels at the expense of our wellbeing.I volunteer with several high school girls. I know what it means to love, care for, and cry over children who are not even my own. The thought of any of them having to endure a horrific rape, and then being forced to carry the baby, keeps me up at night. I oppose this bill because we all deserve the right to choose when is right for us personally to start a family. My students deserve the right to have wonderful careers and settle down when it is right for them, not when a law forces them through consequences that may not even be the result of their own actions. We deserve to have autonomy of our own bodies. Your personal beliefs are not more important than our lives, and you have no right to enforce them upon us.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [UnityPoint Clinic]
CON
This bill is dangerous and harmful to Iowans. Women make good choices for themselves and their families when they have access, education and resources. Gutting our public support systems while criminalizing abortion is doubly insulting. Women have and will continue to terminate their pregnancies regardless of legality, and driving them to options that are not safe will only result in harm and possibly death.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
03-20-2018
Aidan Zingler [N/A]
CON
Do not enact this bill. This is a violation of civil rights as there are no exceptions, meaning a woman could DIE because of complications, and the doctors will be unable to do anything. A woman, regardless of age, will be forced to carry the pregnancy regardless of situation, so if she is raped at a young age that is horrifying. No child should be forced to carry to term after she is raped. That's child abuse to force that on any child.This bill is dangerous as it will push abortions for desperate situation into back alleys, causing further health issues and possible death. We should not be legislating what goes between her and her doctor in regards to her health and any pregnancy. You are criminalizing a woman's body. That violates our civil rights. DO NOT Enact this if you care about life at all. The best way to decrease abortions has been proven over and over to be: 1. increase the sex education and programs for enthusiastic consent and how to say no. 2. Increase accessibility to contraception and how to use contraception. 3. increase funding for reproductive healthcare. Over and over in other countries, those three policies have shown to decrease abortions. Legislating abortions illegal or trying to prohibit doctors form doing their job will not solve this issue. Shame on you for trying to do the doctor's job yourselves when you have no qualifications. Thank you.
03-20-2018
Pamela B Peltz []
CON
I feel strongly that women have a right to decide what's best for her and her family. Government has no right to say what should go on between a woman and her doctor.
Attachment
03-20-2018
Max R Knauer, IV []
CON
Roe vs Wade respects a womans right to choose. Suggesting error in both constitutional interpretation of civil rights and in understanding of progress in homan rights to think otherwise. Ours is a living Constitution not a withering and shrinking set of rights as this Bill argues.
03-20-2018
Stephanie Cromer []
CON
This issue is between a woman and her doctor, and should not involve the state.
03-20-2018
Barb Niccum [voter]
CON
NOT okay to bring a nonIowan to speak Mr. DeLay does not belong here. Do NOT take valuable time away from IOWA voters.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
I absolutely oppose everything about this malicious bill. Women's reproductive healthcare belongs between the women and their chosen medical providers. The government has NO business meddling in this. Abortion care is a constitutionally protected right and the Iowa Legislature needs to BOW OUT!!
03-20-2018
Anonymous
CON
This draconian bill would be disastrous for Iowas women and girls! Politicians mustnt stick their noses into the personal private decisions between a woman, her health care provider and her family. Seven in 10 Americans support a womans access to safe legal abortion. I urge every legislator to reject this bill and vote no.
03-20-2018
Paula Denison []
CON
Please do not support the "fetal heartbeat" bill. This is an incredibly intrusive bill that will cost women their lives. This is not about ending abortion, this is about controlling women. Education, birth control, and access to adequate health care are the only proven ways to reduce the need for or end abortion. This bill is unconstitutional and a frivolous waste of taxpayer money. Spend your time more wisely.
03-20-2018
Brad & Carolyn Benda []
PRO
We want to voice our strong support for the bill SF359! This is a good bill that protects the most innocent and vulnerable Iowans. Please support SF359 !Brad & Carolyn Benda
03-20-2018
Kathryn Miller []
CON
I am very much against the abortion ban. I remember when women died every month in Davenport from coat hanger and back alley abortions. Why would anyone want to subject the women of Iowa with unlicensed medical procedures? It won't stop abortions. It will just move them into the back alleys of America.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
Abortion and reproductive decisions should be made by a woman and her doctor. NOT legislators.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
A woman should have control over her own healthcare and her own body. Period.No exclusions for rape, incest, or children is simply barbaric. Where is the concern for these babies when they are unwanted, or born into disadvantaged, impoverished homes? This is the state where teenage girls have starved to death because of no oversight into their home conditions.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
I want to become a mother through pregnancy, but this scares me to even try to get pregnant while I live in Iowa. What if something goes horrible wrong? I have had friends who have been pregnant where it endangers their lives or the pregnancy is not viable. Forcing them to keep their pregnancy is just cruel to families who want a baby and endangers their fertility for future pregnancies.Please support Iowan women to become mothers how, when, and if they want by keeping their rights between them and their doctors.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
Greetings. The bill proposed is unconstitutional and will cost Iowa taxpayers millions of tax dollars to try and defend, first of all. Secondly, why is it unconstitutional? It is unconstitutional because abortion is a medical procedure. If you have cancer, you do not need a legal statute to receive cancer care. Women need abortions for a variety of reasons, none of which are your business. If you are going to legislate abortion restrictions based on the Bible, will you restrict other life saving procedures, like blood transfusions or vaccines, because other religions do not believe in them? This will not stop abortion. Women will drive to neighboring states to have abortions. This law will limit access to birth control and result in more abortions. You know how Chicago is riddled with gun violence because even thought gun laws are strict in Chicago people can obtain firearms in Indiana? It's the same thing for abortion, only women who cannot afford to go to neighboring states will die in houses and hotels across the state either performing abortions on themselves or obtaining unsafe abortions from people who are not doctors. Personally, as a woman, I am sick of the legislature meddling in my medical care and trying to legislate some kind of sick "consequences" for women who have sex. This entitlement to legislate morality will lead to the death of women who needed a life saving medical procedure that this law will deny. There is no exception for children who get pregnant. As a mother, I find this to be repugnant. Medical necessity aside, the life of my child should matter enough that she could seek and obtain an abortion. I want to end my statement with a story. I recently asked my teenaged daughter to get an IUD because she starts college next year. I had to explain that women are sexually assaulted on college campuses at an alarming rate and she may become pregnant through rape and would not have the option to seek an abortion. NO ONE SHOULD BE OKAY WITH THE ABOVE STATEMENT. This should not be a "sex talk" that mothers need to have with their daughters. Stop this unconcstitional assault on the rights of women and girls in Iowa.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [None]
PRO
This is a terrible bill and will hurt many!
03-20-2018
Cindy Pollard [Concerned Citizen]
CON
You cannot legislate my body! This is my body! I will do what I want with my body. This is the land of the free. My body my choice. Keep your religion off my body and out of the capital. Seperatation of church and state!!!
03-20-2018
Anonymous [Not applicable]
CON
I oppose SF359 or any other legislation that seeks to limit or restrict a female's right to abortion.
03-20-2018
Barb Callahan []
CON
Iowa is very restrictive in its abortion rights now. This bill should NOT be passed. It is a womans right to work with her doctor to do what it best for her. That is legal via Roe vs Wade and should continue.
03-20-2018
Michael Bayer []
PRO
With this bill, SF 359, and its amendment, H8269, I hope that Iowa law will respect human life regardless of its location and stage of development. The subject of abortion invokes passionate feelings. But can we agree on a few facts?Its my body; its my choice is sometimes used to justify abortion. Is the fetus growing inside the mother an extension of her body, like an appendix, or is it a separate person? What does science say about this question?1) The fertilized egg from the moment of conception has its own DNA code that is distinctly different from the mothers.2) The babys blood type is often different than the mothers.3) The blood of the baby and the mother does not mix. The placenta transfers oxygen and nutrients from the mothers cardiovascular system to the babys circulatory system and removes waste products.4) Every prenatal baby has unique fingerprints that are distinctly different from the mothers. Isnt that one way law enforcement can identify one person from another?The developing embryo is indeed a person who is distinctly separate from the mother. In 38 states a person can be charged with a double homicide for killing a pregnant woman.The unborn child is a person and deserves the full protection of our laws so they can enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
03-20-2018
Fran Henderson []
CON
I oppose this bill. I believe abortions should be safe and legal for women. Making abortion illegal will not eliminate abortions. What it will do is force women to have a procedure that is not safe or in a safe in environment. Vote no on this dangerous bill.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [None]
CON
Please do not take the right of a woman to choose. Government should not be dictating how she wants to live.
03-20-2018
Jean Swenson []
CON
This attack on women's reproductive rights has got to stop! I, too, am a person of faith. My faith suggests life begins at first breath. There is no need to inflict another's beliefs on all women in our state. Please stay true to our motto: "Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain." Women's health care rights must be maintained. Abortion must remain safe and legal. We cannot go back to the days of backalley abortions and coat hanger abortions. We cannot waste one more penny of Iowa taxpayers' money fighting a losing legal battle in the court system. Defeat SF359. Thank you for your consideration.
03-20-2018
Karen Crossland [Mrs.]
PRO
When Roe v Wade became the 'law' of the land, it was said that we were at the top of a slippery slope, and passage of this law would be the beginning of disrespect for all life. Unfortunately, that has become all too true, as witnessed by the violence and bloodshed, not only in the womb, but in the classroom and elsewhere in the last 20 or so years.Please help Iowa become one of the first in the nation to show respect for ALL life, beginning with the life of the unborn child. Without the right to life, the right to be born, no other rights matter.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
In addition to being unconstitutional, this bill deprives Iowans of their rights to make informed reproductive decisions, even in cases of rape and incest. Politicians should not insert themselves into health decisions between a woman and her doctor.
03-20-2018
Daniel E. Speed []
PRO
I strongly support SF359 and would encourage it's passage. Thank you!
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
I strongly oppose this legislation, especially in cases of rape, incest, and fetal anomaly or death.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
I do not support this bill or any bill restricting abortion access and rights. Abortion must remain safe and legal. It's time to let the Roe v. Wade stand and move on to other issues facing Iowans.Thank you for your time. Edward Bruggemann
03-20-2018
Aviva Jotzke []
CON
This bill outrageous for many reasons. First, if prolife activists believe that all lives matter, why are we spending so much time with abortions, and not with refugees and children who have been put up for adoption. Also, medically, the removal of a dead fetus is considered an abortion, so even though it is not "killing" the fetus, it would be banned through this bill, and could be fatal for the mother.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
This bill makes no provisions for the lives it supposedly saves. Where's the increased funding for DHS, schools, adoption services etc?
03-20-2018
Kay E. Graber
CON
I cannot believe that a group of legislators who believe that government should not be intruding in our lives would pass a bill that makes a decision for a woman and her husband and her doctor and her church, whether or not she should abort a fetus depending upon what the government says. There are many reasons a woman might be struggling with this decision, some that are acceptable and some that are not, from various points of view. But it is not the government's decision.....it is a decision to be made by a mother and father with their doctor and their church pastor if one is a part of their lives. I wish you cared as much about children who are BORN as you seem to care about an unborn fetus.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [Individual]
CON
I am on of the 7 in 10 Iowans who oppose this bill. This is unethical and unconstitutional. You can no more force women or girls to be pregnant against their will than you can force someone living or dead to donate blood or organs. I am also one of many women taking continuous birth control for medical as well as reproductive reasons. I have not had a period for well over a decade and would have no other indicator or pregnancy until it was too late. Again, I OPPOSE this bill with all conviction.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [Non affiliated]
CON
This bill greatly frustrates me based on its lack of scientific and factual understanding. It seems that there is significant fearmongering that has imbued vulnerable minds with a resentment towards understanding. The point at hand is that tissue and cell clusters are valuable tools for research. Understanding human development is necessary to prevent diseases and loss of lives. This bill either 1) blocks this or 2) is borderline worthless and a waste of time. I'm so tired of the legislators of Iowa wasting my tax dollars. Please stop and actually do something beneficial for state.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [None]
CON
Ive had two pregnancies which ended up being life or death situations for both myself and the children I was carrying. I dont ever want to go through that again, but I was denied a tubal ligation after my last child as I was informed they were illegal to perform in emergency situations. I dont ever want to find myself pregnant again, and I am terrified at the prospect, but accidents happen and birth control fails. If this bill passes I am fearful of a pregnancy where if I would survive, I would face a long recovery with months out of work, and a child with a long term NICU stay. One of my children is disabled because of her early birth, and I already know from the issues with the MCOs there would not be support if that happened again. Please vote no on this bill.
03-20-2018
Susan Madorsky []
CON
I support abortion rights. This is an issue which should be dealt with between a woman and her doctor. Enough is enough. This legislature has spent countless hours eroding women's rights. MOVE ON to other issues! Let the roe v wade stand. Quit harassing women. I repeat, move on to other issues! We have many problems to solve here in Iowa.Thanks
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
I am opposed to any bill that interferes with a womans right to choose. This is ridiculous and unconstitutional. Children that are not wanted are a burden to our entire society!
03-20-2018
Sheri Bro []
CON
1) The effect that the fetal heartbeat amendment will have on the state is unacceptable. This will almost certainly cause the U of Iowa medical school to lose their ob/gyn accreditation. It took me 4 months to get an appointment as a new patient with an ob/gyn and this would only increase that time. Iowa is 49th in the country for ob/gyn per capita!!! Absolutely unacceptable.2) The abortion restrictions are unconstitutional and would immediately be fought in court. The state is still fighting the 20 week ban from last year. How much money are you going to waste on this?!?!?3) The decision to have an abortion is a woman's, with the advice of her doctor. It is hers and hers alone.
03-20-2018
Lynne Himmelreich []
CON
I was a student nurse in 1969 in New York City. I will never forget the woman who walked into the emergency room with a trail of blood. She died. This is something probably none of you have experienced during your lifetime. Please do not choose to make this common again. Lynne Himmelreich, ARNP, CNM, MPH
03-20-2018
Lisa [Banitt]
CON
I am opposed to SF 359 for many reasons. The most important reason is that the government has no business interfering with the doctorpatient relationship. Also, as history has shown, making abortions difficult to obtain does not stop women from seeking them; rather it drives them to less safe methods of obtaining them. This bill is not just unconstitutional, it is dangerous to women.
03-20-2018
Rev. Joe Stutler []
CON
Terrible bill, unconstitutional, antithetical to the Freedoms I served to preserve. Mind your own vagina/uterus.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [Self]
CON
Abortions NEED to be safe, and available. The Government has to stay out of decisions women must make, for their lives and futures. Women are more than capable of taking care of their lives, without government interference.
03-20-2018
Emily Brown []
CON
I strongly oppose this bill that serves to take away women's rights to make their own healthcare decisions. It is unconstitutional and misguided. It is not the role of the government to infringe upon a woman's right to make independent healthcare decisions, including the right to an abortion. This bill has dangerous implications for the women of Iowa. 7 in 10 Americans believe abortion should be safe and legal, and that politicians have no business inserting themselves into decisions between a woman and her doctor. This bill presumably is motivated by religious beliefs. Then please consider the 68 Iowa faith leaders who publicly declared they support a woman's right to an abortion in the Des Moines Register. They stated: "Every person has the right to their own personal and religious beliefs and to live their life how they determine is best for them. The government does not have the right to infringe on the freedoms or privacy of Iowa women based on those religious beliefs.Every woman deserves to consult her values, faith, and doctor when making a decision about her body and her pregnancy. Any law that strips a woman of her faith and tries instead to legislate her values for her is immoral. We stand with the women of Iowa and their constitutional right to make their own healthcare decisions. We ask the Iowa Legislature to do the same." I agree and ask you to vote against this dangerous bill.
03-20-2018
William [Stumpf]
CON
This bill goes way too far. To think that it theoretically could require a child as young as seven to carry a child to term is appalling. We in Iowa do not want to be known for such archaic legislation. We are better than that!
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
This is another piece of legislation pushed by interests not representing the sentiments of most Iowans, that interferes with the ability of women and their doctors to make informed decisions.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
This is blatantly unconstitutional and a bad bill. Many women do not even know they are pregnant at 6 wks and it should be between a woman and her dr what to do with a pregnancy. This could also jeopardize the accreditation of the UI College of Medicine. We do not need to become "the Mississippi of the Midwest". NO on this bad bill.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [Planned Parenthood of Iowa]
CON
I am opposed to this bill as are the majority of Americans.
03-20-2018
Kathy Willoughby []
PRO
We should not be selling baby parts. And we should not be stopping a beating heart for any reason. Time to take a stand and stop the slaughter.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
Passing this bill will make Iowa a reproductive health wasteland. If the goal is less abortions, we need more resources dedicated to comprehensive sex ed. and free/affordable birth control so Iowans have the tools to successfully control their reproductive health. Do we really want to go back to the days of coat hanger abortions? Because, make no mistake, that will happen. Also, there is no way this can pass constitutional muster. We will remember this come November.
03-20-2018
Tambi Heiter []
CON
Women and their doctors (NOT legislators) should be in charge of their health.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
Women have the right to make their pend medical decisions this is a huge step back. Forcing women to seek other means to protect their health. Please reconsider this bill as this is not good for women if Iowa.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
Let us not force women back to the days they had to hide to protect their rights and bodies. Back to a time that an one with a dark room could multilate a womans body.
03-20-2018
Joe Michalec []
CON
Politicians have no right to dictate what a woman can or cannot do with her own body. It appears that this bill is based on the religious beliefs of a minority of Iowans and I find that objectionable. Please vote this down
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
I am an Iowa native and believe abortion should be a safe and legal choice for anyone in our state, and that politicians have no business inserting themselves into the personal reproductive health decisions of Iowans.
03-20-2018
Jennifer Hahn []
CON
Stop attacking women's rights to make health care decisions with their body! Vote no and respect my rights to chose!Thank you
03-20-2018
Ashley Burns [Private Citizen]
CON
I am opposed to SF 359 for my sister, my female friends and myself. As an Iowa woman of healthy reproductive age, I firmly believe my right to reproductive healthcare is a decision only I can make. These deeply personal and private decisions should be between a woman, her doctor and her family if she so chooses. Abortion is a safe & legal medical procedure. That is a fact. No other medical procedure comes with such high stigma or is as highly criticized as abortion. My decision to do what I want with and for my body is a right protected and granted to me under the Roe V. Wade Supreme Court decision and I will fiercely defend that right. Make no mistake, we aren't going back. Any bill that harms women and their families, the physicians who care for them & the accredited institutions that train medical professionals is a BAD BILL. I refuse to stand to the side & allow Republicans to put their fancy religious ideologies above the facts. 7/10 Iowans support Planned Parenthood and the lifesaving work organizations like them provide that includes access to safe and legal abortion. I'll say it again: we're not going back.
03-20-2018
Chris D Gleason, CHES [Retired]
CON
I am opposed to this bill. Abortion is legal in this country and repeated attempts by this state and others are not in the best interest of women. Seven out of ten people in this country support a womans right to abortion. A woman, in consultation with her health care provider, should be the one making personal reproductive decisions not profetus conservative legislators who only care about life prebirth. Chris D. Gleason, Cerified Health Education Specialist
03-20-2018
Kevin Wilhelm []
CON
I am against this bill. This bill ignores the rights or women. Reproductive rights are their decision, not the governments. Also, this repressive bill is simply bad for business. Iowa businesses will find it VERY difficult to recruit, hire and retain women as they will move to states where their lives, rights, and intelligence are recognized and valued.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [None]
CON
I am completely opposed to a six week abortion bill. This legislation is removing the medical knowledge and expertise from a medical procedure and instead imposes a short sighted moral authority. This bill wouldnt have seen the light of day if it was any other medical procedure. Imagine the Iowa legislature imposing restrictions on xrays or MRIs, that bill would be dead on arrival. Thats What an abortion is, a medical procedure and medical procedures should be decided on by doctors and their patients not the legislature.. This bill will NOT reduce the number of abortions performed in Iowa. It will make abortions unsafe, thereby endangering the lives of the mothers. It will cause more women to feel as though they have to carry a child they dont want, and then likely raise a child they despise, Because giving a child up for adoption is the hardest choice a woman can make. It will result in women dying due to pregnancy complications that when an unviable fetus will have to be carried to term. It will mean the state will be burdened by additional medical bills and child assistance needs. All because an Iowa legislator thought to impose her own morals on the state. Abortion was declared legal by the supreme courts Roe v Wade decision. This is not a loophole and the people of Iowa demand that we will not go back! This bill MUST be rejected.
03-20-2018
Rev Gary Burkhalter [Pastor, Mission in Christ Lutheran Church, Strawberry Point, IA]
PRO
Let this bill speak for those whose only voice is their heartbeat.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
I urge you to vote against SF359 as abortion is legal and I believe in a women's right to make this decision. In previous hearings several representatives said this is not about ideology and I reiterate that yes, it is. My religion upholds the inherent worth and dignity of each individual and the respect for free and responsible truth. My religion and faith supports the belief that this is a choice to be made by a woman and her support (family, friends and Doctor). Everyone deserves the right to safe, accessible health care, including abortion and our government should not legislate access to care. Those who have spoken for the bill and abolishing abortion have repeatedly based their objection on morality backed by their religious ideology so yes, they are making it about ideology which does not represent the majority of constituents in the state, my faith and many other people of faith.
03-20-2018
Kim berthusen []
CON
I am in favor of women making decisions about their own bodies, own lives. I do not support this legislation or related legislation that affects womens right to choice.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [None]
CON
Please keep abortion safe and legal in Iowa. Please support providing effective contraception to women, which has been the intervention showing the greatest effect in reducing abortion rates around the country
03-20-2018
Ruth Strong []
CON
I didn't find out I was pregnant until 6 weeks, both times. I know most of my friends and family were finding out they were pregnant at around the same timeframe. Even when you contact the doctors office it takes a week to several weeks for an appointment to confirm pregnancy with their blood test. I also know that anyone who wants/needs to terminate the pregnancy have to call and schedule an appointment with a special clinic. These appointments for this procedure are not offered every day and now with the reduction of facilities in Iowa that perform this procedure, the wait time to get in increases. 6 weeks is a ridiculous time limit on an option for abortion. I do not agree in any way the reductions in woman's health rights with this bill. Try harder, do better Iowa Government! Yours truely, a Health Care Voter
03-20-2018
Patricia Kell []
CON
This bill is a huge waste of time and money, both finite resources that should be spent addressing true concerns and issues facing Iowans. Besides wasting our money and ignoring issues that should be addressed this will harm women and families. Healthcare should be fact based, inclusive, and accessible to all...it should not be politicized by weak politicians who can't be bothered to address real issues facing our state, nor used to punish poor and rural women.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
I am ashamed that the legislators in my home state would have such disregard for women and partners when having to face such challenging circumstances. Decisions such as this should be up to women, their partners, and medical professionals. This legislation will be challenged in court, costing us all money we don't have. It will put the U of Iowa's medical preparation programs in peril. Our shortage of OB/GYNs in the state will only increase. If these factors weren't significant enough, there are no exceptions for rape/incest?! As if these victims haven't been through enough, let's further scar them by carrying a baby for nine months. This is absurd. I understand that Republicans are very interested in scoring political points these days, but for many reasons, this legislation makes no sense for Iowans.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
I believe this decision should remain between a woman and a doctor. I have a lot of concern about how this may impact people who are already mothers and their life is at risk due to pregnancy. Who decides when the risk is great enough to justify a termination? If we are waiting until literally someone may die then some will die. Lifesaving efforts can't save 100% of people. Some children will lose their mom.So my question remains who decides what is lifethreatening? Is having pregnancy cancer life threatening? Is an ectopic pregnancy life threatening? Is an imuno response that causes paralysis lifethreatening?What is the cancer have to literally be killing her and she can't breathe before termination happens? Does the atopic pregnancy have to rupture causing her to begin to bleed out before termination happens? Does a woman have to suffer through permanent paralysis or organ failure because it wasn't deemed lifethreatening enough?There are too many scenarios to legislate them all. These are just a few.
03-20-2018
Christine Koepplin []
CON
Please use common sense and vote NO on this bill. As a woman, a mother of young women, a social worker, a coach of female athletes, and a human being, I cannot fathom how legislators who are tasked with governing the people of Iowa can possibly entertain the idea that this is a good decision. I strongly urge you to vote NO and not allow Iowans to revert back to unsafe and unconscionable practices around women's health. This legislature has already done enough damage in this area. Stop the madness.
03-20-2018
Leslie Carpenter []
CON
This bill is an assault on women's privacy and health. I strongly oppose the legislature trying to put their own religious beliefs on my private medical decisions.
03-20-2018
Nancy Vetter []
CON
This bill is horrendously prohibiting to females of all ages. It seems to me to be against the Human Rights and Constitutional Rights of women. I am against it and any human being with a solid understanding of humanity and good conscience should be also.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
To ban abortion after 6 weeks when most women do not know they are pregnant that soon is abhorrent and limits options for women to make decisions for their own health and wellbeing. To provide penalties to those who provide these services is unjust. The reason we have Roe VS Wade is to prevent the death of women when it comes to having unsafe abortions. The fact that our state is taking the opportunity to move backwards and make this state unsafe for women to live and survive saddens me. Women deserve choice. This bill will not prevent abortions, it would escalate the amount of deaths for women. Is a woman's life really that unimportant?
03-20-2018
Susy Robinette []
CON
This bill is unconstitutional. Vote NO.
03-20-2018
Catherine Morris []
CON
If we don't want women and girls to have abortions, the way to accomplish this is by working tirelessly to CONVINCE them not to have abortions. Instead, this bill proposes that women and girls lose their status as equal citizens. It legislates discrimination by saying, "The minds and bodies of women and girls are not as important as the COMPELLED USE OF THEIR BODIES in service to the state's interests." That's unAmerican, and it's an abuse of state resources to spend time on this issue.Citizens in this country cannot be compelled by the government to donate kidneys, lungs, blood, or stem cells to sustain the lives of family members. That choice is up to the INDIVIDUALeven though the decision means the life or death of another. The government does not get involved because in the United States, citizens enjoy bodily autonomy. If this bill passes, it would wrongly subordinate women and girls to the interests of strangers.Again, if we don't want people to have abortions, the way to accomplish this is by working to CONVINCE people not to have abortions. It is not the government's job to compel childbirth just as it's not the government's job to compel abortion.
03-20-2018
Leonard Struttmann [--None--]
CON
I am against the passage of this legislation. It will severely restrict the rights of women to make informed choices about their own bodies. Please vote NO on this bill.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
None of us want to go back to the days of backalley procedures to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. Why are the republicans against women like this!!
03-20-2018
Janet Evans []
CON
I am opposed to SF 359. The fetal heartbeat bill is intrusive and ignores reproductive healthcare rights of womenand girls. I am appalled that young girls could be forced to carry a pregnancy to term according to this bill! I have heard testimonies about the physical and emotional damage that having an abortion does to women. In fact, a safe abortion procedure is much safer than childbirth itself. Who will determine whether the loss of a pregnancy is a spontaneous abortion or an intentionally terminated pregnancy? Will child support payments or assistance now begin at fetal heartbeat detection? This bill is unconstitutional.
03-20-2018
Jann Freed []
CON
Women should control their bodies not the government. Why is the state of Iowa going backwards?
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
This bill should never become law.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
This ban is not only unconstitutional, but shows the Republicans true belief that they do not care for human life only fetuses. They are not prolife, they are probirth. They do not care if an 8 year old is raped and becomes pregnant; they will FORCE THIS CHILD to give birth. They will condemn any woman who suffers from rape, incest, or age, to psychological damage that the Republican's are not willing to fund the services for to help the psychological damage. The people who vote in support of this bill show their true colors they do not care about the health of the mother, and that women's only worth is their ability to be a concubine. Shame on ANYONE who supports this bill.
03-20-2018
Brad Davison-Rippey []
CON
I am a constituent urging the committee to oppose the 6week ban on safe, legal abortion in the state of Iowa. SF 359 would make it a felony for a doctor to perform an abortion the moment a fetal heartbeat is detected before many women even know they are pregnant.This bill would functionally ban abortion in the state, with rare exception.The detection of fetal heartbeat is an arbitrary measure that politicians are weaponizing in order to advance an extreme antichoice agenda.The politicians sponsoring this bill are outside the mainstream of common sense thinking and their motivation is clear: to create a vehicle to legally challenge Roe v. Wade. The process through which this bill has been appended to another antiscience bill is utterly appalling. Fetal tissue has been successfully used for decades in medical research. It was critical in creating a vaccine for polio and more recently it has been used in effort to find treatments for spinal cord injuries, eye disease, strokes and Parkinson's disease.It's important to recognize that federal law currently prevents the transfer of fetal body parts for valuable consideration. NO clinics in Iowa violate this law.STOP TARGETING PLANNED PARENTHOOD. STOP TARGETING WOMEN. STOP ATTACKING SCIENCE. STOP TRYING TO INTERFERE IN THE PRIVATE MEDICAL DECISIONS OF IOWANS. Spend your time and money on making common sense reproductive health care options more accessible. From the Des Moines Register on March 15th: These "arguments come among a dramatic decline in abortions in Iowa and across the nation. The number of abortions performed in Iowa dropped 44 percent since 2007, when there were 6,649, to 2016, when there were 3,722, according to reports from the state Department of Public Health.Iowas birth rate has not climbed to offset the drop in the abortion rate."Your attempts at blatant unconstitutional laws are not reducing the number of abortions. Sensible reproductive healthcare options are.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [I]
CON
Oppose this bill. A decision like this should only be made by the woman and her doctor.
03-20-2018
Earl B. Kavanaugh [individual ]
CON
This bill infringes upon a woman's constitutional right to choose whether to have an abortion, as established by the United States Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade. The fact that the Iowa legislature is even considering this bill is a blow to Iowa's reputation on the national stage. I have no doubt, if passed, this legislation will be challenged and struck down by the Iowa Supreme Court. Save some face and withdraw this bill from consideration now.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [N/A]
CON
Abortion should be safe and legal. The decision is personal and should be between a patient and her medical provider.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
I am absolutely against this bill. First, fetal body parts are not sold in Iowa. Second, the amendment attached to this bill relating to the "fetal heartbeat" makes this bill an unconstitutional restriction on women's health care rights. Decisions to carry a fetus to term or abort it should be made among a woman, her family, and her doctor. The Iowa legislature should not stick its nose into this delicate decision. In addition, there is no consideration for if a woman or girl has conceived by rape or incest. To make her carry a fetus to term is inhumane to the victim and absolutely unacceptable. Please vote against this proposed legislation.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
I strongly oppose the ban on 6week abortions. This is dangerous and hurtful to women. As a mother myself and one who has suffered miscarriages, I feel this would only endanger the lives of the mothers. It would open doors to hurt and penalize a mom who was already suffering. Or those mothers who face challenges of compatibility for life, fertility after loss, and life or death instances. Abortion should always be between a woman and her provider. They alone know whats in the patients best interest.
03-20-2018
Tracy Creason [NA]
CON
I urge all of you to vote no to the Heartbeat (amendment) bill. A woman deserves a healthy, happy life with the right to make choices about her lifestyle, her health, her body and who makes her medical decisions. Pregnancy is a very personal decision and so is abortion. Making a decision to terminate a pregnancy for whatever reason must be that of the woman, and hers alone. There are numerous reasons a woman makes a decision to have an abortion. Some are personal decisions based on timing of a pregnancy and others are the medical and life threatening reasons that present themselves well into a pregnancy. Her life or that of the fetus maybe in danger. The fetus could not be developing normally and will die shortly after birth or never be able to live without extreme forms of medical support. The woman may have been forced into an unwanted pregnancy or her method of birth control may have failed. Whatever the reason, it must be her choice, her right to choose an abortion. The heartbeat bill does not allow her this right, this choice. By passing this, you are denying women the right to make choices, medical and emotional, choices about their bodies, their lives. This is not protecting an unborn child but bringing children into a world that is not prepared for them medically, emotionally or financially. You are endangering their fragile lives. I urge you, I implore. VOTE NO! Give all women the right to their bodies, their health and their families.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
I am against this bill that further erodes a women's right to control over her own body.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [Self]
CON
I oppose this legislation!
03-20-2018
sally pederson []
CON
This bill will harm women and result in illegal, unsafe abortions.
03-20-2018
Jack Creason []
CON
I don't have experience with abortions or having/losing children but I have an opinion on things such as the government and older White males that have no idea about the issues women face making laws to hurt them. When was religion allowed to dictate what we do and the laws we make? When was choices that one person makes determined by laws that are made to hurt those people? Why do the religious stick so closely to certain things the bible says but ignores that rest? Pro Lifers are not Pro Lifers but pro birth. Why don't they care as much about the homeless that die daily? The homeless Vets that suffer daily? Other children and mentally ill that suffer daily? Because it doesn't fit into a sensationalist agenda. it doesn't tear at the heart strings of the masses. Look at what the GOP is doing to things that help children and tell me and others how this is a good idea? Wanting to or already have removed protections or services that help children and adults. Will everyone that is pro on the matter adopt a baby now? Will they pay more taxes to raise unadopted babies? Will they seek out to help the others in the community that need help? I can say for sure this is a no. While the idea to stop something looks great and makes you feel that way in the end most won't care outside of making a few comments about the issues. Until this changes voting yes on this and making it a legal standing bill isn't the best idea, but it's the one that will make the people that vote for you the happiest. That isn't freedom or democracy. SF 359 is a joke. If anyone that is pro for it took a chance to read it and actually research it they'd know that the selling of "baby parts" or fetal parts is already federally illegal. This bill is nothing but a sheet to cover the abortion ban.
03-20-2018
Mary Heaton Carrick [Born and raised in Iowa]
CON
Born and raised in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa with friends and loved ones still in the state I strongly oppose this bill that will strip women of our constitutional rights. While it may not be an option I would choose, the decision to have an abortion is between the woman and her faith. It is not the role of the government federal or state to legislate faith or to legislate control over a woman's body. I am troubled that my home state of Iowa, a state I have loved and have advocated for, has taken such a turn in an extremist direction. This is not the Iowa I grew up in. I hope the Iowa legislature will vote this bill down.
03-20-2018
Clio Cullison [Planned Parenthood]
CON
this bill is unconstitutional and restricts healthcare rights in a way that is unjust and inequitable.
03-20-2018
Nina Gill [Mchi]
CON
Help womenDont criminalize abortion No one wants an abortion And if you dont want one dont get one.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
Banning abortion at the 6 week mark is shortsighted. You want to stop abortion, change how sex is taught in schools, offer support to pregnant women like affordable medical service and maternity leave. Support children once they are actually born with free medicine and good schools. You want to solve this problem, you have to look at the bigger picture. All this bill does is create more problems like back alley abortions for desperate people who don't know where to turn for help. Be the help, not the stress.
03-20-2018
Stephanie Hall []
CON
As a former Iowa resident, I'm appalled to see this argument being raised again by the Iowa legislature. Women are smart and capable of making this decision themselves.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
I believe it is the womans right to choose if she has an abortion. Please consider women who have been raped and would like to abort the baby. How would you feel seeing the face of your attacker in your child every day? Women should also have the choice so they dont go to extremes to end their pregnancies in unsafe, illegal ways. Please put yourself in others shoes before you revoke their rights. Thank you
03-20-2018
Jon Muller [None]
CON
I stongly urge you to vote no on this bill. A 12 year old girl gets raped by her uncle or brother or father, and doesn't discover she's pregnant for 6 weeks. She should not be forced to have a baby by the State. If she is your daughter, you have the power to make her have that child already, and that's bad enough as it is.There are those things that are revealed to all thinking adults to be evil and wicked, like raping a 12 year old. We all know that, regardless of religious affiliation or no religion at all. But first trimester abortions do not fit in that category. Most of us do not believe it is evil or wicked. The vast majority of us believe abortion should be available and safe. Please confine legislation of this nature to those things that are revealed to us all.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
I completely oppose this bill banning abortions after 6 weeks. This ban will not stop abortions from taking place. It will only cause woman to go elsewhere or seek unsafe ones. A woman should be allowed to have complete autonomy. The government has no place inside of a woman's body. The choice and decisions made should rest solely on the woman, her partner and her physician. Regardless of any one person's personal views and beliefs, these are things that should have no bearing on someone else's life.
03-20-2018
Elizabeth Baird [Planned Parenthood of Iowa]
CON
As representatives of all Iowans, please focus on positive bipartisan ways to support women, children and families. Decisions about family planning are highly personal and should remain with women and families, not government. And, Iowa taxpayers do not need to be paying for years of court battles over unconstitutional legislation!
03-20-2018
Laurel Bruntz []
CON
Beyond nakedly oppressing women and stealing their autonomy over their own bodies to make medical decisions, this is immediately unconstitutional. Its frankly offensive to me as a taxpayer that legislators are wasting time and money even discussing this bill.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
Women should have the right to make decisions based on their bodies. This decision is for what is best and it would be foolish to generalize that women do not care about anyone but themselves in that hard decision she has to make.
03-20-2018
Jae L. []
CON
If Iowa makes abortion illegal where there is a heartbeat, the University of Iowa will lose their OBGYN residency program.
03-20-2018
Brad Van Voorhis, M.D. [University of Iowa College of Medicine]
CON
This law prohibiting abortion after detection of fetal cardiac activity would be a major blow to reproductive rights and is unconstitutional. In addition, it will be a big waste of time and money as it will immediately be challenged legally and will lose. Let's not take such a major step backwards in the provision of safe and effective reproductive health for women.
03-20-2018
Andrea Greiner MD [OBGYN Physician]
CON
I am against this bill as it an overreach of government into the lives and uteruses of women. Decisions about pregnancy should be between a woman and her doctor with NO politicians involved. A bill to prohibit the sale of fetal parts is unnecessary legislation as this doesn't happen in Iowa.The amendment to prohibit abortion after 6 weeks is not in the best interest of women in the state of Iowa. Women who do not want to be pregnant will find a way to terminate that pregnancy. Banning abortion leaves women with the options of having to travel a long distance for a pregnancy termination or obtain an unsafe abortion, potentially threatening her life. The 6 week abortion ban also has the downstream effects of incurring significant legal costs to defend this bill against the lawsuits that will be filed if it signed into law. Additionally, banning all abortions in Iowa could result in the loss of education accreditation for the OBGYN Residency at the University of Iowa and the Carver College of Medicine. This is the OBGYN training program in the state of Iowa. And finally, it will be difficult if not impossible to recruit women's health physicians to the State of Iowa if this 6 week abortion ban goes into effect.This bill is bad for the women of Iowa and the majority of them do not want this bill in place.
03-20-2018
Sara []
CON
Whatever an individual's personal beliefs are about abortion, the decision should remain between a woman and her healthcare provider. Politicians and lawmakers have no room in making these types of decisions. How do people in support of this bill claim to be prolife, yet disregard the thousands and thousands of women dying from unsafe and illegal abortion every year something this bill would ensure. And make no mistake, this bill is a vehicle to challenge roe v. wade. This bill is an attack on women's rights, and in turn, human rights.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [Citizen]
CON
Stay out of the reproduction process please. I am more prolife than prochoice but believes a person has the option to choose.
03-20-2018
resmiye oral [university of iowa]
CON
I am the director of the child abuse program at the university of iowa. as a child abuse pediatrician, I have observed that unwanted pregnancy is one of the greatest risk factors for child abuse and neglect. by limiting the time frame to legal abortion two major consequences will occur that legislation should take into consideration: 1) More infants and children will be abused and neglected, some killed as a result of abuse, some living with the scars of abuse and neglect. 2) More people may opt for illegal abortion and unsafe fetal elimination techniques that will put the young women's lives at risk.
03-20-2018
Patty Fitzgerald [Retired]
CON
Again I say, stop trying to tell women how to control their bodies. We are quite capable of taking care of ourselves. We need affordable birth control too so support Planned Parenthood. We do not need a lot of unwanted babies
03-20-2018
Fran Fleck [Volunteer/ Planned Parenthood of the Heartland]
CON
I am outraged by the continuing attempts of Legislative Republicans to inject themselves into the private life of an Iowa woman during the sensitive time that she and her family may be faced with making a private medical decision. This legislation is not about women's health abortion is a safe and legal medical procedure and it is a private decision a woman may choose or not choose to do it is and should be HER decision, not a politician's. This legislation is nothing but an attempt to challenge Roe v Wade. I urge all Legislators to vote NO on the abortion ban.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
Some girls & women do not even know they are pregnant until months & months after impregnation. They still have the right & should not have it taken away from them, to make necessary decisions concerning their own bodies.Do not take away any woman's rights to their decisions over or about their bodies. (My own little sidenote...Just like no one is taking away the rights of men who are getting the women pregnant in the first place.)
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
As a Catholic, I believe this bill will be destructive of the health and wellbeing of Iowa women and children, and for that reason urge its rejection. While the bill's supporters think they are supporting 'life', in fact they are denying what could be lifegiving treatment to women who for many reasons may decide in consultation with their doctors to terminate a pregnancy. No legislator has the right to tell a woman with cancer, for instance, that she must forgo chemo and radiation in order to carry an embryo to term. No legislator has the right to tell a 10year old victim of rape that her life means less than the embryo she is carrying. To be prolife means supporting the health and well being of our communities providing women, men, and children with medical care, food, housing, and education. I urge all our legislators to commit to these goals, and to reject this destructive bill.
03-20-2018
Mindy Swank []
CON
Leave healthcare between a woman and her doctor. They are the ONLY people in the world capable of doing whats best for her baby. I promise to vote against every politician who supports this. I almost died from not being able to receive an abortion for a baby that wasnt going to live anyway. This is no way to run healthcare in a developed country!!
03-20-2018
Jodi Stanfield []
CON
Keep abortion safe and legal!
03-20-2018
Anonymous [University of Iowa Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology]
CON
Access to safe abortion until viability is a very basic right for women and the foundation for women's health and safety. This decision should be left to a woman and her health care provider. I take care of women in other countries in which abortion is prohibited, and I see the dangerous effects that this prohibition has, including terrible infections causing infertility, chronic pain, and death. This leaves families and communities to suffer. Please do not put Iowa back into these dangerous times.I am also concerned about keeping excellent Ob/Gyn trainees coming to Iowa and excellent physicians working in Iowa for the betterment of our community as a whole. This bill puts women's health care in jeopardy by jeopardizing these training and practice opportunities.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
The 6week ban is an unconstitutional bill that intentionally goes too farnot to mention, women should have the right to decide such personal matters in consultation with their doctor. This is not a matter for legislators to decide!
03-20-2018
Carolyn Vaughn []
CON
I vehemently oppose this bill
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
Banning abortion after 6 weeks only bans safe abortion. More people will seek backalley methods, if unable to go to physicians for their terminations. This means Iowans WILL die if SF 359 becomes law.We have seen the history of backalley abortions from preRoe V. Wade days. People used knitting needles, coat hangers, lye, and so much more to terminate a pregnancy they could not for whatever reason carry to term.Further, after factoring in all the variables realization of pregnancy, weighing options, funding, taking time off work, scheduling with a clinic, etc it makes it virtually impossible for someone to get an abortion. Which brings us back to the point that, if someone is desperate enough, they will take the issue into their own hands, ie perform their own abortion.We all want people to be safe, however, SF 359 is a dangerous bill that will cause more deaths than prevent.
Attachment
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
PRO
VOTE YES FOR THIS BILL!
03-20-2018
Ayla Heder []
CON
When we make abortions less accessible and illegal, abortions do not decrease. We actually see that rate of unsafe and illegal abortions increase, threatening the lives of women. So if we really want to address unplanned pregnancies which is what I see as the root cause of the problem, let's work to make sure family planning and reproductive health care are accessible and equitable to all individuals in Iowa.
03-20-2018
Laura Crossett []
CON
I am the single mother of a six year old son. As I often tell people, I was able to chose to have my son when I got pregnant because I knew I did not have to, thanks entirely to our government's recognition that whether or not a woman chooses to carry a pregnancy to term is a decision that SHE makes, not anyone else.Almost half of pregnancies in the United States are unintended, because having sexan activity engaged in by both men and womencreates pregnancies, sometimes even despite contraception. Just ask me about my failed IUD, for which I had to pay $500 out of pocket and make three trips to a clinic thirty miles from my house because at that time we did not believe contraception was a fundamental part of health care). The Affordable Care Act has, fortunately, remedied that part of the problem, but no healthcare for women is complete without comprehensive abortion service.I am not interested in making arguments about who deserves to have an abortion, because EVERY woman deserves to make her own decisions about the issues that most affect her life. Your sister, your daughter, your wife, your cousin could become pregnant from rape or incest, or they could become pregnant just due to bad luck. At six weeks into pregnancy, most of those women would just be discovering that they were pregnant at all. To pass this bill would be to rob them of any say in their own fate.If you value women as human beings, you will vote no. If you vote yes, I will know just where you stand.
03-20-2018
Kristi Swenson [Private citizen]
PRO
Committee Members, Representatives and interested citizens,I am representing citizens who value all life from conception to natural death.I am in favor of SF 395 because it is our first duty as citizens and as lawmakers to protect evey individuals basic right to life. Science has been able to prove that the baby in the womb is not part of its mother. The preborn child has its own DNA, blood type and heartbeat that are all autonomous from his/her mother. This baby is an individual life inside of his/her mother. This baby has the right to life!Some say one can not impose her view on another, especially in lawmaking. However, I would make the point our laws already do impose the value of life on our society. One cannot take the life of another, we call that murder. By this, our society already imposes the view that life is sacred and cannot be lawfully taken by another. No matter the circumstances!The argument has been made not to pass this legislation SF 395 because the courts may strike it down when it becomes law. I would argue, it is always right to do the right thingbecause it is right to protect life!I am asking you to remember these things as you consider your God ordained duty as a legislator and as a citizen to protect all life. Please vote to pass SF 395.Respectfully,Kristi Swenson
03-20-2018
Nicole Laug []
CON
Abortion should be safe, legal, and a decision made between a woman and her doctor.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [N/A]
CON
Decreasing access to abortion does not decrease rates of abortion only rates of safe abortion procedures. This should not be a single issue focus because it is integral to reproductive health as a whole.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
As a 73 year old woman, I believe that thiedecision about abortion should rest with the individual woman. To pass such restrictive measures is another way for men to control and denigrate women. The people of Iowa should be ashamed to support these characters who have no respect for women, starting at the presidential level. They forget about the greatest commandmentto love one another. Love must go with respect. This means that each person has the right to decide about personal issues and deserves the respect of alleven Men!
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
This bill is a disgraceful attack on female rights to reproductive choices. Please vote no.
03-20-2018
Debbie Gitchell [Planned Parenthood Heartland]
CON
Women have the constitutional right to make their own decisions concerning their reproductive health and respect that right women have for their well being.It seems that those against this fact are basing their opinionOn their own religious teachings. One has that right to follow their religious beliefs. Not all of us have these same religious beliefs.If one thinks this is religious, then lets remember that religious freedom is a basic right as expressed in our constitution.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
I am strongly opposed to this bill restricting a women's right to make medical choices about her own body. Do not pass this bill and restrict women's right to choose!
03-20-2018
Adrienne Greenwald [None]
CON
70% of Iowans support access to abortion. This draconian legislation restricts access to a very safe medical procedure with no regard for the woman. Do not pass this unconstitutional bill.
03-20-2018
Mazie Stilwell []
CON
I am currently 17 weeks pregnant with my first child. Choosing to carry this fetus to term is something that I deliberately decided with my spouse and my doctor. You, as legislators, have absolutely no business interferring in my personal medical decisions. The passage of this dangerous bill WILL result in more unsafe, deadly abortions. For the health, safety, and respect of Iowa women and their families, please oppose this bill.
03-20-2018
Nicole Riggs []
CON
As a woman who has needed to make an agonizing choice over causing further pain to a baby who will not live, or terminating a doomed pregnancy, I ask you to vote NO on the Fetal HB Bill. The fetal heartbeat bill, which fetishizes the fetus at the expense of the personhood of women, is a deliberately extremist bill motivated by personal religious beliefs in an attempt to force the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade. Hiding behind the label of pro life when attempting to dismantle checks to allow unfettered access to guns, pushing for the resumption of the death penalty, and cutting resources for these women and children once born in Iowa is unconscionable and just another way for you to sit in judgement of others. How very Christlike of you. A fetal HB law will not stop abortion, it will further endanger the lives of women and the practice of medicine in the state of Iowa. Such legislation makes clear that living breathing Iowan women mean less to you than a fetus that may never be genetically capable of life outside the womb. Please dont make more punitive an already agonizing decision. Nicole and Michael Riggs
03-20-2018
Anonymous [None. ]
CON
A six week abortion ban is barbaric especially as you have no consideration for rape or incest or for the life of the mother. The fact that youre willing to put a human adult at risk for a collection of cells is appalling. Its quite obvious the people sponsoring this bill are only doing so because its a hot button issue you know will win some votes. What an unethical thing to do. What about all the members of the voting public that dont want this bill? Have you done any unbiased polling to see what all voters think? Id bet you havent, but you should it would be the ethical thing to do. Im sure the results would suurprise you. If signed into law this bill will to force poor people into a choice between having a hood they cant afford because they cant afford to leave the state for an abortion or have an illegal abortion that very likely could kill them. I hope the bill sponsors are ready for womans blood on their hands from the illegal abortions thatll kill woman.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [Ms.]
CON
Really? Back to the dark ages?
03-20-2018
Devin McKissic [Medical student at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine]
CON
I feel that the fetal heartbeat bill is directly in opposition to the health, wellness, and rights of Iowan women. I am strongly opposed to its passage.
03-20-2018
Marcus Haustein [Medical student CCOM]
CON
I oppose the fetal heartbeat amendment of this bill.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [Medical Student at CCOM]
CON
I am against the fetal heartbeat amendment of this bill. See our letter that has been signed by many of us for more details about why.
03-20-2018
Bailey Mendenhall [Cedar Rapids Chapter of the National Organization of Women]
CON
This bill should not be up for debate. This choice is between a woman and her doctor, not for a politician to decide. I also believe that religious ideology and feelings should not influence our law. 7 in 10 Americans believe abortion should be safe, and legal. The consideration of this bills is proof that our representatives are indeed not representing our views and interests.
03-20-2018
Elizabeth Heineman []
CON
The 6week abortion ban in SF 359 is an unconstitutional violation of women's rights to bodily autonomy and privacy. Vote NO.
03-20-2018
Melissa Peterson [Individual ]
CON
Please vote against SF 359 and the amendment H8269. I am ashamed that certain elected officials in Iowa want to take our state back 45 years in history and spend very valuable taxpayer dollars trying to defend their conservative ideology. This bill effectively says that all women are not capable of making their own health and wellness decisions. Attorney Sarah Weddington in her remarks during Roe v. Wade before the US Supreme Court more than 45 years ago said it very clearly, this is about equality, this is still very true today. Women are in control of their own lives. You were not elected to take away our rights, impose your religious beliefs and/or make my personal health decisions. "A pregnancy to a woman is perhaps one of the most determinative aspects of her life. It disrupts her body. It disrupts her education. It disrupts her employment. And it often disrupts her entire family life.....because of the impact on the woman, this ..... is a matter which is of such fundamental and basic concern to the woman involved that she should be allowed to make the choice as to whether to continue or to terminate her pregnancy."Sarah Weddington in Roe v Wade
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
PRO
I believe its the womans personal responsibility to chose. If you want to stop abortion, stop the fertilizing the egg.
03-20-2018
Neil Fagan []
CON
Womens lives are saved when they have access to safe and legal abortions and to contraceptives. The abortion rate has continually decreased even while abortions remain legal and safe. Nobody is for abortion. But I and many others respect a womans right to make a private health care decision in the confidential doctor appointment. If you dont believe in abortion dont get one and train your loved ones not to get one. Stop criminalizing physicians and women.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [Medical Student CCOM]
CON
I am against the fetal heartbeat amendment of this bill. It will negatively impact medical education in the state of Iowa and therefore decrease the quality of care given to the people in this state.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
I don't like abortion and have shared with all my kids that I do not believe it is necessary to contemplate at any time. I've also educated them how not to need that option in the first place. I've worked to develop positive relationships with them so they feel that they can share issues and problems with me. Unfortunately, not all young people have a parent who can do these things for them for whatever reason.I don't believe it is my place or yours to take that right away from other people. What if we work to change the conversation and ask people to work together towards making abortion obsolete? Let's make sure we provide the education that people need to make good decisions. Let's make access to contraception easy and affordable. Let's quit ostracizing the teenage girl or single mother and put solutions in place that will help them to make the decision to put their baby up for adoption or provide them with the help to raise that child to be a healthy, productive adult. I think a majority of people could get on board with that.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
This a horrendous bill that would take medical decisions out of patients and trained medical professionals hands and subject them to lawmakers who dont know anything about medicine and biological development. Leave medical decisions to medical professionals who have been through 8+ years of schooling, of whom there a precious few in Iowa (We are second to last for number of obgyns, only moving up a spot from dead last last year). This bill would also have the secondary effect of making sure that Iowa would have even fewer of those doctors by discrediting Iowas teaching program, something that effects people of all genders and ages, pregnant or not.
03-20-2018
Lexi Young []
CON
I would like the committee to know that I oppose this bill, as it limits womens access to constitutionally guaranteed health care. In so doing it puts the health, both physical and mental, of my fellow Iowa women at risk. It devalues women, by not allowing them the freedom to make the best decisions for themselves and instead gives that power to politicians. Please oppose this bill and protect the health of Iowa women.If you truly want to end abortion work to end unwanted and dangerous pregnancies. End violence against women. Endorse research into prenatal and pregnancy related health crisises. Support mothers and children AFTER birth. Fund sex education. Dont push abortion into back alleys and then look the other way. Respectfully,Lexi YoungWoman, Mother, Iowan
03-20-2018
Anonymous [Citizen ]
CON
I adamantly oppose this bill. It is disastrous for women's rights and human rights. It is 2018; not 1950, and it is not your place to write laws dictating what I can and cannot do with my body. Rest assured that I, like many other women in the state of Iowa, are watching this closely and will respond in the polls. I will vote in opposition to any politician that expresses support for this bill and votes for it, and I will urge every person I know to do he same.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [none]
CON
Banning abortion at 6 weeks is an incredibly dangerous and reckless move for the health of women in this state. The University of Iowa may lose its OB/GYN residency over this, and it will become even more difficult for women to access normal reproductive health care if doctors fear felony charges. Because of the limits placed on abortion during the 2017 legislative session 15,000 Iowa women lost their access to reproductive health care. Please do not take any more steps to limit women's access to health care.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
I strongly oppose this bill as it severely limits the reproductive rights to women in this state. It is not fair or appropriate for law makers to impose personal viewpoints/values to limit reproductive options for couples. We believe in a separation of church and state in this country and the introduction of the bill stands in endanger the basic principles on which this country was built.
03-20-2018
Emily Wirtjes []
CON
Most women do not know they are even pregnant until after 6 weeks which would not give them a choice at all with this new bill. This bill will not eliminate abortions, but increase the amount of poorly performed abortions on the street.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
Banning the option for medically safe abortion would cause great personal harm to at least three of my close friends in this city. I have never had an abortion but I still feel it should remain legal and accessible to the women of Iowa to save their lives or to prevent unnecessary suffering due to severe medical conditions. One of my friends has a three year old son who would be motherless if she was denied the care she needs due to a rare health issue that makes traditional hormonal birth control not an option for her to prevent pregnancy but if she were to carry a child shed likely die or become unable to have further children until she is able to heal enough/advances are made to find alternate options. Thats just one story and there are so many more than just the women I know personally. This bill if passed would actually harm more lives than it would save, in this voters opinion. If my friends are out at risk due to this bill Ill have no choice but to vote out as many Pros as I can this November. Please dont put Iowa women at risk and deny them their constitutional rights to health and safety and life itself.
03-20-2018
Abbey Fairbanks [None]
CON
This bill in unconstitutional and will be adjudicated if it passes. Women in Iowa have a right to full and comprehensive health care and that includes abortion. This law will increase maternal mortality and morbidity in our state. Have we not learned from the past? Outlawing abortion forces women to go to extreme and unsafe measures. Please protect women and do NOT pass this bill.
03-20-2018
Emily Rice [Citizen]
CON
I'm concerned about this bill because I am a sexually active woman and this bill would limit my ability to choose a pregnancy should I become pregnant despite my efforts to responsibly mitigate it. It's highly unlikely that I would realize I was pregnant by 6 weeks. By crimilizing my lastresort options to mitigate pregnancy, the state will be forcing pregnancy and motherhood on me. I do not believe life begins at conception, I do not believe that I should have to carry a pregnancy to term if I am not ready for a child. It is unconscionable that my right to choose motherhood will be hijacked because of the convictions and idealogy of others. I am even more concerned for the many women and families that this bill will hurt. Women who are told by their doctors a pregnancy isn't viable will be forced to carry those doomed pregnancies to term. The psychological and physical harm this will cause is indescribable. I am concerned for the victims of abuse, children and women like me. My rapist did not use a condom. I am fearful for future victims how this bill will impact them. We should be able to choose whether we are fit to carry a pregnancy to term. No woman should be forced to bring a pregnancy to term because of the idealogy or convictions of others. I believe this is an egregious abuse of policy. I, we, deserve the right to choose motherhood. I, we, should be allowed to legally access procedures that would terminate a pregnancy before a fetus is viable outside of the womb. Please vote "no" on this bill.
03-20-2018
Abbey Fairbanks [None]
CON
This bill in unconstitutional and will be adjudicated if it passes. Women in Iowa have a right to full and comprehensive health care and that includes abortion. This law will increase maternal mortality and morbidity in our state. Have we not learned from the past? Outlawing abortion forces women to go to extreme and unsafe measures. Please protect women and do NOT pass this bill.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [University of Iowa Healthcare ]
CON
I would like to express my opposition to the bill, as a womens health provider in Iowa. I do not personally provide elective abortions, but in my capacity as an obstetrician gynecologist, I have witnessed heartbreaking situations in which women must choose abortion for their own health or difficult circumstances surrounding the health of their baby. I have a strong background in global health, and having worked internationally, I have seen horrific cases of botched illegal abortions. While abortion is a horrible choice for women to make, when they are forced to seek it illegally, it can lead to devastating consequences. Finally, I think it is vitally important to the training of obstetrician gynecologists AND neonatologists in our state, that some abortion care be allowed to continue. As has been discussed elsewhere, limiting abortion provision this much will threaten the integrity and ultimately the existence of our obstetrician gynecologist training program. Ironically, the University of Iowa has one of the best neonatology programs in the entire country. This is a program that provides intensive care for born babies who most need it. However, the neonatology program cannot exist without an obstetrics and gynecology residency! By threatening abortion provision, this bill actually threatens provision of care to the neediest babies in our state as well. I urge you all to consider other ways to limit abortion in our state and to remove this bill from consideration.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [retired]
CON
Sorry gents, this isn't about you. It isn't about your god. It's about a woman's choice. Get out of her life.How many women are on this committee, friends?
03-20-2018
Jessica Manning []
CON
This bill would not allow adequate time for a woman to know she was even pregnant. Abortion decisions should not be decided by our state representatives, but by women, their significant other and their doctor. Pro choice people are not proabortion. We are pro women having the right to make the decision that is best for them. Thanks to Roe vs Wade that right has been protected and needs to remain that way.
03-20-2018
Linda R. Jones []
CON
This bill is a disaster and unnecessary. Women's reproductive rights are none of the legislature's business. They belong to women and their chosen medical professionals. Further, this bill will jeopardize the University of Iowa's OB/GYN medical training program and its certification. We need all the trained medical people we can get right here in our state. Please abandon this bill and put your efforts toward more urgent problems such as the financial crisis facing our state.
03-20-2018
Terence Manning []
CON
Many women wouldnt even realize they were pregnant at the six week mark. Even if the woman did know by that time, it wouldnt allow adequate time to process such a difficult decision.
03-20-2018
Melissa Lutgen-Scoonover []
CON
I am opposed to this bill. Medical advances should not be hindered by laws regarding tissue or fetal parts. The general description of penalties is a loathsome attempted abuse of power.
03-20-2018
Deb McMahon [I am woman, hear me roar!]
CON
The law of our nation is clear! Women have the right to choose and this has been decided. Men, of whom the state legislators are in the majority, need to butt out!
03-20-2018
Cindy Garlock [Citizen]
CON
This bill is likely unconstitutional. It allows for no exceptions for incest, rape, age of the victim. Abortion is a safe and legal procedure. Stay out of my uterus.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
I wanted to publically voice my objection to SF 359 as well as the amendment H8269. This would be detrimental to the health of women in our state and impinge upon their rights. It would also put our Obstetrics and Gynecology residency program in jeopardy.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
The push for this bill does not accurately reflect the views of Iowans7 in 10 Americans believe abortion should be safe and legal. Politicians have no business inserting themselves into decisions between a woman and her doctor.
03-20-2018
Lyra Halsten []
CON
I am completely against this bill. It infringes upon women's rights to make our own decisions regarding our bodies. It will endanger and enslave thousands of women by forcing them to carry pregnancies that they may not have chosen or intended! It is a dangerous and misogynistic piece of legislation and I urge you to vote against it. If it is passed, you will not have the blood of fetuses on your hands, but the blood of women who will be forced to resort to barbaric and backwards means to terminate pregnancies. If you believe that murder is wrong, you cannot pass this bill which will result in many more deaths at your hands!
03-20-2018
Anonymous [Individual]
CON
I oppose the addition of the fetal heartbeat bill to current fetal parts bill.
03-20-2018
Jill McLain []
CON
I am extremely opposed to this bill. Leaving personal medical decisions to legislators with no medical experience or expertise is irresponsible and morally reprehensible. This bill not only forces personal religious beliefs on all women, but it fails to protect women and children who are victims of sexual assault. Ive never been more ashamed to be an Iowan. I thought we were better than this.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
PRO
Please dont mix two issues here by attaching a six week abortion ban on this bill. This act is the sort of thing that makes most of the public disgusted with our political system and our politicians. There is clearly intent to hide content that would not pass on its own. A majority of Iowans do not wish for a ban of abortion at 6 weeks for a variety of reasons. Not the least that it is not a legislators job to determine what course of action a female should or should not do with her own living, full grown body.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
AGAINST THIS!!
03-20-2018
Anonymous [Citizen]
CON
I am not for this bill. This bill not only forces personal religious beliefs on all women, but it fails to protect women and children who are victims of sexual assault. Ive never been more ashamed to be an Iowan. This is unconstitutional and a fiscally wasteful use of tax dollars, as it will surely be challenged in court.
03-20-2018
Nancy Pettit [Physician Assistant for a crises pregnancy center]
PRO
I have done sonograms for 14 years at a crises pregnancy center for free for the patients. I detect the heartbeat at 5weeks5days gestational age .Detecting the heartbeat means the pregnancy is viable or alive. We as adults are considered alive when are hearts are beating. So when you purposely stop the beating heart of a human, you are killing the human.It is as simple as that. As Iowans we need to value life of humans no matter their size.Why cant we be a leader in the nation to show all human life is valuable.Nancy Pettit
03-20-2018
Dr. Erin Casey, MD []
CON
A decision about a womans body should be made between the woman and her physician. Legislators should not dictate what medical procedures can be performed. Time and again it has been shown that banning abortions doesnt actually stop them from happening. Multiple studies show that access to birth control DOES decrease the number of abortions. Additionally this bill is unconstitutional and Iowa legislators that vote for this bill will be spending our hard earned tax dollars in legal fees. Why dont we instead spend that money on our education and providing easy access to free birth control for every woman as that is what we know will decrease abortions.
03-20-2018
Sarah Lauer []
CON
This bill is a horrendous violation of bodily autonomy and has the potential to ruin lives. If a woman is raped or the pregnancy is dangerous to the mother, there will be no way for the woman to protect herself. A life is infinitely more valuable than a potential life.
03-20-2018
Sophia Williams-Perez [University of Iowa, Carver College of Medicine]
CON
I do not support the Fetal Heartbeat Bill.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
I strongly oppose this bill and am disappointed in our representatives for bringing forth legislation that acts to negatively impact women.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
PRO
I support the bill to ban sale of fetal body parts. This is consistent with laws in our state and our nation. Human Organ sales are forbidden by any adult for all USA children. I support protecting the beating heart. Our state invests many dollars to protect these individuals with Medicaid pre natal care. Our state already has laws to compensate parents of unborn in the case of violent death (assault, auto collision). Be consistent. She's a baby. Love life.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [self]
CON
SF 359Overly restrictive government interference with what should be an individual/family decision.I worry about the lasting impact this will bill will have on Iowa.
03-20-2018
Jeri McGinnis []
PRO
Please vote against this bill.None of the legislators are medical professionals & have NO business being in a private conversation between a woman, spise, and their doctor.This is a religiously proposed idea NOT a medical one.What happened to separation of xhurch & state?
03-20-2018
Anonymous [None]
CON
An unconstitutional and mean spirited self righteous bill put forth by those who are not qualified to make decisions for thousands of women. Shame.
03-20-2018
Deborah Anders-Bond [self]
CON
Women should make their own decisions for their own bodies. It is no one else's right to legislate against women's personal decisionmaking power
03-20-2018
Janice Weiner [Janice Weiner for Senate ]
CON
Please reserve speaking time for Iowans, not out of state guests. This bill, if passed, will impact Iowas women and families not Texas women. Instead of insisting on pushing this billx which will immediately get hung up in the courts, I ask fhat you put your time and efforts to work caring for and helping Iowans. Help our atrisk children, who come to school hungry every morning. Help their parents with better paying jobs. Fix the Medicaid mess and in particular, ensure the disabled and the seriously mentally ill get the services they need with timely payments. And for heavens sake, take care of our elderly. Fund the nursing home ombudsman, and provide services so people can age in place with dignity and grace. These are our parents and grandparents.
03-20-2018
Stacy Amling []
CON
I strongly oppose this bill and any legislation that would limit peoples access to safe and legal abortions. Please vote no!
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
This bill is incongruent with the earlier attempt to have the death penalty in Iowa. If you want to preserve life you need to be consistent. You also need to use good science. A heartbeat does not equal life. Do you not take people off life support while they still have a heartbeat because they are brain dead? Furthermore, cells in a dish in lab can be made to beat. Does that make them a person? Does that make scientists killers? While I do not believe in abortion as a form of birth control and I believe in the seamless garment theory of life, I think that you can do irreparable harm to women with this bill that has false logic behind it. Women will die and it will be your fault. You will cause extreme mental anguish by forcing women to carry pregnancies of children that will die because of severe birth defects that are incompatible with life. I am ashamed to be a Republican today.
03-20-2018
Megan Hopkins []
CON
This bill is unAmerican. Every women has the right to decided what is best for her, her body, and her health. No one, including the government, has the authority to strip a women of this inalienable right.
03-20-2018
Maddie Ripperger []
CON
This bill is unsafe and unconstitutional. Banning abortions in Iowa will not end abortions in Iowa, it will only make them scary and unsafe for the women that desperately need them regardless of the circumstances. When I had an abortion 2 years ago I was not raped, it was not incest, and my baby did not have health problems that would affect its viability. I chose to terminate my pregnancy because it was my right to ensure a better life for myself so that someday I can have a happy, healthy baby that I will raise to my best ability, if I choose to do so. And two years ago was not that time. Abortion is normal, and the stigma around it has led me to feel shame about my abortion, but now I'm standing up for all of the women I know who have had abortions and all of the women who will need them in the future. Please help keep Iowans safe and happy by keeping abortions safe and normal.
03-20-2018
Brandy Mitchell [Nurse Pracitioner]
CON
Dear Legislators:SF 359 will not prevent abortions. It will only reduce SAFE abortions in our state.If the goal of this group of legislators is truly to reduce abortions, I ask you set aside ideologies and review the evidence: Abortions and unplanned pregnancies are reduced when women are provided with accessible and affordable contraception. Please take the time to review the Colorado program that made contraception available, accessible and affordable to women across the state and REDUCED ABORTIONS AND TEEN PREGNANCY BY OVER 60% AND SAVED TAXPAYERS MILLIONS OF DOLLARS. This highly successful program was supported by both Republicans and Democrats in Colorado who voted to fund it in the general state budget. Please do not remove the ability of women to make personal decisions about safe access to legal healthcare. Be the heroes by supporting legislation that actually works to reduce abortion. VOTE NO on SF 359.
Attachment
03-20-2018
Todd M. Stein []
PRO
I am against abortion and for the babys right to live. Someone needs to speak up for those who can not speak yet.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [N/A]
CON
I wish to express my voice against SF 359 for various reasons. I am concerned this will jeopardize our training program in Obstetrics and Gynecology which will then directly harm the women of Iowa by further reducing our access to skilled healthcare providers. Secondly I am concerned that attempts at limiting abortion will only move women to take matters into their own hand and we will see rise in complications of unsafe abortion, again there will be direct harm to Iowa women. Finally, were this bill passed it would surely draw legal opposition which would use valuable taxpayer money to contest this bill in court, a third way this bill would directly harm Iowans. No one desires to see women terminate pregnancies electively, but we have great evidence that the most effective way to decrease rates of abortion is to expand access to effective contraception as well as scientifically valid sex education. This is where we should be focusing our efforts to safely decrease rates of abortion in our great state.
03-20-2018
Cliff Potts []
CON
Abortion should be the womans choice, it should be communicated between the Doctor, and the patient, and no one else. The procedure should be safe, and legal. Government, even the most benevolent, needs to stay out of this discussion.
03-20-2018
Jill Harris []
CON
This is a terrible waste of money. If we really want to reduce the number of abortions, we need to use sciencebased methods. Fully funding birth control and providing accurate sex education have been shown to reduce abortions. See Colorados wildly successful program. Constantly introducing unconstitutional bills wastes valuable funds that could be used to care for Iowas citizens. The US currently has the worst maternal mortality rate in the developed world.
03-20-2018
Susannah Koch [University of Iowa ]
CON
The heartbeat restrictions on this bill are unconstitutional. Women have been seeking abortions for hundreds of years in this country. They will continue to seek abortions regardless of the legality and these laws make it difficult to provide safe options for these women. Please consider the individual women going through these difficult times before you pass this bill.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
Abortion is a safe, legal procedure and one that should be viewed as an important part of womens health care. Reproductive rights are essential for women to be able to be able to lead fulfilling lives: they are basic human rights. Restrictions under the law should be deemed unconstitutional. As a womens health care provider, I have already seen impacts on access to reproductive health services in Iowa due to the defunding of Planned Parenthood negatively impact my patients. This is not the direction Iowa should be heading in if we hope to maintain economic prosperity, success and drawing young women and families to Iowa to live. It is quite frankly hostile towards the women of this state to strip them of their right to choose.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [None]
CON
This is a ridiculous bill, seeking to solve a problem that doesnt exist, while stealthily undermining a womans right to choose.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
I believe in safe legal adorations in the first trimester of a womens pregnancy. Birth control is not 100% effective. We already have too many children whose parents do not want them which causes huge issues for them and society. Children who are unwanted tend to have mental health issues and legal issues as adults.
03-20-2018
Barb Wheelock [none]
CON
I strongly oppose SF 359, which will severely restrict a woman's access to safe and legal healthcare to terminate a pregnancy, with no regard to her age or the circumstances of the pregnancy.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
This bill is unconstitutional. It places an undue burden on the women that restricts her constitutional right to secure a safe abortion. The rates of abortion remain stable whether they are legal or illegal, so this bill will only make them more unsafe. The fact that there is no prevision for rape or incest is not only legally unjust but also morally unjust. This will be one of the strictest abortion laws in the country and is directly against the precedent of Roe v Wade. SF359 will not prevent abortions in Iowa. It will not dramatically decrease the number of pregnant people who seek abortions and it will not save the lives of countless fetuses. In fact, SF359, if passed and signed into law, will have a body count. People experiencing pregnancy will seek alternative means to terminate the pregnancy. They will search for at home remedies, they will mutilate their bodies, and they will die. SF359 will kill pregnant people. It will ruin lives and destroy families. It will cause bloodshed and heartbreak and will drive Iowans to desperate ends. SF359 is not a prolife bill. It is a direct assault on the lives of Iowans who experience pregnancy.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
Please keep options for women safe and legal. Make progress happen not regress!
03-20-2018
Kellie Ann McNally []
CON
No one in our government should get to decide what my doctor and I think is best for me. This bill is more about being radical than it is about protecting women and their health. You should be more concerned about the humans with fully functioning brains and how you can serve them.
03-20-2018
Melissa Heston []
CON
This bill will be highly detrimental to poor women and will do little or nothing to stop abortion. Rich and middle class women will simply go to aonthef state where abortions are safe and legal. Poor women won't have that choice. Until there is free provision of all forms of contraception to all women, this law would only lead toillegal and unsafe abortion among the desperate. Without provision for all needed free prenatal, birth, and postnatal care, thus bill is not prolife. It's just forced birth fir poor women!
03-20-2018
Joseph Kowalski [University of Iowa]
CON
This bill would be a great loss for the healthcare of women in the state of Iowa. I am an OBGYN. My patient's and I should be able to decide on the best course for her care. Laws motivated by religious/partisan politics have no place in modern healthcare.This would also jeopardize the training of future women's healthcare providers in the state. The supporters of this bill should seriously consider the potentially unintended consequences of trying to pass legislation such as this. Do people really want fewer welltrained OBGYNs in a state that is already low on OBGYNs?
03-20-2018
Anonymous [NA]
CON
This bill is DANGEROUS to the health of women. Banning abortion at 6 weeks (ie, for most pregnant women) will not reduce abortion, it will reduce SAFE abortion. If this law passes, we will see the return of backalley, unsafe & unsterile procedures and many Iowa women will die. Women need access to the full range of health care, including safe abortion.
03-20-2018
Kathie Farris []
CON
Every weekend girls in Iowa have non consensual sex. They may be drunk, the boy may be drunk, or the girl may simply be overpowered. Therefore two children are at risk: pregnancy for the girl and charges of rape for the boy. However, only the girl is punished by this bill. The ugliness of this is apparent to most. To punish the girl before she even knows she is pregnant is unjust. Unfunding Planned Parenthood has put many girls at risk. The same legislators who back this bill also refuse to support these girls and their babies, punishing them twice. Shame on us if we continue to support legislators who pretend to be doctors.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [medical student CCOM]
CON
I am against the fetal heartbeat amendment of the bill.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [University of Iowa]
CON
This bill is unconstitutional. It places an undue burden on the women that restricts her constitutional right to secure a safe abortion. The rates of abortion remain stable whether they are legal or illegal, so this bill will only make them more unsafe. The fact that there is no prevision for rape or incest is not only legally unjust but also morally unjust. This will be one of the strictest abortion laws in the country and is directly against the precedent of Roe v Wade. SF359 will not prevent abortions in Iowa. It will not dramatically decrease the number of pregnant people who seek abortions and it will not save the lives of countless fetuses. In fact, SF359, if passed and signed into law, will have a body count. People experiencing pregnancy will seek alternative means to terminate the pregnancy. They will search for at home remedies, they will mutilate their bodies, and they will die. SF359 will kill pregnant people. It will ruin lives and destroy families. It will cause bloodshed and heartbreak and will drive Iowans to desperate ends. SF359 is not a prolife bill. It is a direct assault on the lives of Iowans who experience pregnancy.
03-20-2018
Jes McCauley []
CON
Like 7 out of 10 Americans, I strongly support safe and legal abortion. This ban is not good for women and not good for Iowa.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
This bill is unconstitutional. It places an undue burden on the women that restricts her constitutional right to secure a safe abortion. The rates of abortion remain stable whether they are legal or illegal, so this bill will only make them more unsafe. The fact that there is no prevision for rape or incest is not only legally unjust but also morally unjust. This will be one of the strictest abortion laws in the country and is directly against the precedent of Roe v Wade. SF359 will not prevent abortions in Iowa. It will not dramatically decrease the number of pregnant people who seek abortions and it will not save the lives of countless fetuses. In fact, SF359, if passed and signed into law, will have a body count. People experiencing pregnancy will seek alternative means to terminate the pregnancy. They will search for at home remedies, they will mutilate their bodies, and they will die. SF359 will kill pregnant people. It will ruin lives and destroy families. It will cause bloodshed and heartbreak and will drive Iowans to desperate ends. SF359 is not a prolife bill. It is a direct assault on the lives of Iowans who experience pregnancy.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [University of Iowa]
CON
This bill is a disgrace and an embarrassment to Iowa, and would set women's rights back nearly five decades. By passing it, we are telling the nation that Iowans do not value women or their autonomy. Regardless of your opinion of what is right or wrong, a pregnancy is a part of a woman and it is her decision to determine what to do with it. The women of Iowa did not vote you into office to take away their rights, they voted you in to tackle real issues that need solving. 9/10 women do not support this bill, despite what they may say on Sunday around the men. Have you noticed how many more men you hear speaking out publicly for this bill? What do you think is going to happen in the privacy of the voting booth? If you vote for this bill, you can be certain that the women of Iowa will not be voting for you in November.
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
This bill is unconstitutional. It places an undue burden on the women that restricts her constitutional right to secure a safe abortion. The rates of abortion remain stable whether they are legal or illegal, so this bill will only make them more unsafe. The fact that there is no prevision for rape or incest is not only legally unjust but also morally unjust. This will be one of the strictest abortion laws in the country and is directly against the precedent of Roe v Wade. SF359 will not prevent abortions in Iowa. It will not dramatically decrease the number of pregnant people who seek abortions and it will not save the lives of countless fetuses. In fact, SF359, if passed and signed into law, will have a body count. People experiencing pregnancy will seek alternative means to terminate the pregnancy. They will search for at home remedies, they will mutilate their bodies, and they will die. SF359 will kill pregnant people. It will ruin lives and destroy families. It will cause bloodshed and heartbreak and will drive Iowans to desperate ends. SF359 is not a prolife bill. It is a direct assault on the lives of Iowans who experience pregnancy.
03-20-2018
Chris Buresh [University of IOwa]
CON
I think that this bill is dangerous and puts women in a situation where they will have to risk their lives by obtaining illicit abortions. No woman aborts her child without carefully considering it. Many don't even know that they are pregnant by 6 weeks. I do a lot of work in Haiti where we have women die almost every week because of legislation just like this.
03-20-2018
Marygrace Elson, MD [University of Iowa Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency Director]
CON
Thank you for the opportunity to testify earlier tonight. Attached is my testimony.
Attachment
03-20-2018
Anonymous []
CON
a baby grows inside a female, not in a bag hanging in a store or hospital. until such time, a female should have her own choices for her own body. the republicans cannot control a female. a baby grows inside a mother for around nine months. she needs to take care of herself and her baby in those times. who can force her to do this? what if she doesnt want the baby? for what ever reason. control guns please, leave a female alone.
03-20-2018
Anonymous [Junior women of DeWitt]
CON
Please vote no on this horrific bill. The consequences to healthcare in Iowa if this goes through are too large to even comprehend! The attack on women must end! You are working for Iowans. You can bet we will show up to the polls and all the angry Iowans will be sure to vote you out. Alec has you all in their pockets and Iowans are finally taking notice!
03-21-2018
Anonymous []
CON
Banning womens access to an abortion between the 6th and 12th weeknig their pregnancy will endanger lives (the lives of the living).
03-21-2018
Anonymous []
CON
I am OPPOSED to this bill. Keep abortion legal and safe.
03-21-2018
Anonymous []
CON
I do not support the state limiting a woman or girls right to terminate her pregnancy after the detection of a fetal heartbeat. An abortion is a reasonable solution to an unwanted healthy pregnancy up until viability. Of course, preventing the pregnancy in the first place would be ideal, but thats not what this bill is about. My opinion is shared my a majority of Iowans. Additionally, it is already illegal to sell fetal body parts. This entire bill is unnecessary.
03-21-2018
Rosemary Kirlin [Dawn's list]
CON
DAWNs List, (Democratic Activist Womens Network) is a prochoice organization that supports each womans right to make their own reproductive choices in consultation with the womans health care provider & her family as appropriate. A woman should have basic human rights & should be considered more than just a vessel for pregnancy. We recognize the decision to have an abortion is not a decision any woman makes lightly. Having an abortion is one of the most personal choices a woman can make & is made for serious personal & health reasons. It is inappropriate & frankly offensive to have a womans most intimate reproductive health care decision made by an impersonal & uncomprehending legislative body. That violates a woman's right to privacy to make her own reproductive health care decisions.This law would require women with a fetus that dies in utero to carry the dead fetus to term, regardless of the harm to woman. Pregnancy & birth are complex medical conditions. No legislature is qualified to make medical decisions period; & is certainly not qualified to make medical decisions that do not fit all women who become pregnant. This bill will also decrease the number of Obstetric/Gynecologist physicians willing to practice in Iowa due to the chilling effect this will have on the healthcare choices a patient may make in consultation with their physician. The resulting decline in availability of OB/Gyne Care, which is already a problem in rural Iowa, will lead to an increase in maternal & infant mortality in rural areas due to the lack of access to OB/Gyne physicians throughout rural idea. This is a bad bill. Maternal & infant mortality rates should decreasing in this most wealthy nation on earth. Instead, matarnal & infant mortality are increasing in the US (the US is now tied with Romania for maternal & infant mortality) due to defunding healthcare & due to legislation like this that usurps the right of individuals & physicians from making medical decisions appropriate to each individual patient.We understand you may be opposed to abortion on religious grounds. You have a right to follow your personal religious precepts. You have no right to force others to follow your personal religious precepts. You should respect each persons freedom to follow their own religious beliefs or lack of same. Finally, the sale of fetal tissue is not occurring & has already been outlawed nationwide. There is a cost to preserve & relay all human tissue including blood products, transplanted organs & tissues used provided for patient recipients or which are used in research. This proposed law banning the sale of fetal tissue, attempts to fix a problem which does not exist. Redundant legislation is bad legislation because it causes more problems that it fixes. We respectfully ask a Iowa legislators to vote against the fetal heartbeat bill & against a unnecessary bill opposing the sale of fetal tissue.
03-21-2018
Anonymous []
CON
Women have the right to a safe abortion and medical care, education.
03-21-2018
Meagan Mostrom []
CON
This bill is a completely unreasonable attack on women's health. As a constituent, I am vehemently against it.
03-21-2018
Lori Lovstad [concerned citizen]
CON
I am a mother of four children and I vehemently oppose this draconian antiabortion bill. I work in the medical field and none of you had the right to insert yourselves into a medical decision between a woman and her doctor. A right to make decisions concerning my own body is no one elses, and you overstep to even think you have any rights to a body that isnt your own. If you dont believe in abortion, then dont get one. I wish you would work half as hard supporting the children you force people to have than trying to legislate about reproductive choice. If you want to value life, start valuing the lives that are already born.
03-21-2018
Sarah Shaffer [University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics]
CON
This proposed bill is a danger to women who have reproductive potential but also medical conditions that in the pregnant state can be stressed to the point of putting the woman/mother's life in danger... conditions which may also limit the life potential for the fetus being compromised along with the woman carrying the pregnancy. It is unconscionable to limit the decisionmaking ability of the pregnant woman (and her current dependents, life goals, etc) in favor of a fetus with uncertain fitness. Later in the pregnancy, we allow women to make medical decisions for the fetus there are carrying to limit this decision making capacity early in the pregnancy is unfounded. Finally, to limit a couple or family's ability to make the best decision for their entire family (terminating a pregnancy with a known lethal or lifealtering anomaly in order to maintain resources for existing family members/dependents) is stepping beyond the boundaries of what law/legislation should be able to tell men, women and families they are able to decide and to do.
03-21-2018
Larassa Kabel []
CON
I am outraged that the representation of our citizens is yet again being subverted in order for a minority opinion to roll back legal rights for everyone. The secrecy being leveraged in a democratic government is an threat to our freedom and American values, and everyone in this government who is supporting this tactic should be ashamed of themselves. Beyond the obvious abuse of power being used, I am deeply offended that our state government continues to focus on this issue when they should get their heads out of their asses and fix the real problems our state has our inability to fully fund basic community services such as our schools. Pro life?! The government only seems concerned with forcing people to have babies and couldnt care less about whether there will be clean water, health care or a decent education for those kids. I am ashamed of the state of Iowa.
03-21-2018
Anonymous [None]
CON
I don't think politicians should be trying to play doctor with blanket regulations. Reproductive healthcare decisions should be made by women with accurate medical information from their health care provider.
03-21-2018
Marcella Peltz [?]
CON
This bill only allows termination of the mother is in medical emergency. I was pregnant recently with a planned baby girl named Thea. She developed severe abnormalities and was dying. I am predisposed to preeclampsia and have a high BMI and struggle with my blood pressure. People do not wait for cancer or other medical issues to become an emergency before they take action. I have two children at home. My baby was going to die, and Iowa laws made it so that I couldn't start my grieving process. I had to advocate for my own health and the university of Iowa helped me terminate my pregnancy. We cannot make women risk their lives for nonviable pregnancies. The best person to make decisions for my family is ME!
03-21-2018
Christie Smith [None]
CON
We won't go back.