The Clock Is Ticking. What Are We Going to Do, Folks?

Hi everybody. I’m back. Sorry I haven’t written anything for a while. The world is on fire, both literally and figuratively. And like most of you, I’ve been struggling over the last few months to find the energy and motivation to dive back into this blog. It finally started to sink in that I’ve been teetering on the edge of mild depression for a while. I need to pull myself out of this funk. The election is less than two months away and I need to do my part to make sure that and I need to do my part to make sure our country is a safer, more secure, less potentially violent place.

I can’t tell you who to vote for or against as this blog is officially part of IAF, a 501c3 charitable organization. I have very strong, clear opinions on who should win the elections in November, but I will post all of that elsewhere. However, I can and will opine here on issues that matter to atheists and freethinkers: Separation of church and state, religious privilege, and humanist values.

The Age of Covid has not been kind to Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers. We can’t gather in large groups anymore and online meetings via google meet have pretty spectacularly failed to keep us active and engaged at a time when we most need to be. (Racists and Christian nationalists have had no problem finding their motivation.) All of our usual activism activities — the Pride events, the parades, the Family Leader Protests — have fallen by the wayside. Our sense of community has faded. What does our Social Chair have to do when social distancing is about the only thing that keeps us safe from the ravages of Covid?

I only have the vaguest ideas what to do about any of this. One thing I did accomplish a while ago was an opinion article published in the Des Moines Register. That felt good. I’m going to work on another one, along with some Letters to the Editor. I’m going to write a bunch of posts asking all of you to crowdsource activism and community-building ideas. So be thinking about that. I’ll get back to you with specifics.

I have a half-formed idea that we should harken back to one of the founding events of IAF: The bus ad campaign that triggered so much controversy ten years ago. We need a project like that to inspire us, attract attention, show the world where we stand, and that we are here for atheists, freethinkers, and secularists across the state of Iowa. More on that later as well.

I’m hoping this blog will be therapeutic both for me personally and for IAF in general. The clock is ticking. The timer is winding down to zero. What are we going to do about it folks?

By Robert Cook

Activism Chair

Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers

Help Spread Reason on the Hill

This coming Tuesday, March 10 is the Fourth Annual Reason on the Hill Day. It will take place in the rotunda of the Capitol Building in downtown Des Moines, Iowa from 1:00 to 4:30 pm. It is hosted by a coalition of secular groups from across Iowa including Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers, Humanists of Linn County (who did most of the heavy lifting organizing the event), Secular Students at Iowa, Iowa American Atheists, and Eastern Iowa Atheists.

I’ll be there at IAF’s table. If you are free that afternoon I urge you to rally with us. Let’s show our legislators that non-believers and freethinkers live in Iowa, that we care about evidence-based laws, and that we vote.

At this event, a coalition of secular groups stands to protect the rights of humanists, atheists, the non-religious, and all other Iowans that would benefit from a more secular government. Our members believe strongly in the separation of church and state and that reason, science, critical thinking, and compassion should guide the legislative process.

On this day we join together to support evidence-based governance by speaking with legislators and visitors at the Capitol about policy issues.

Each year with this event we have the opportunity to show our elected officials that secular Iowans are a constituency to learn and hear from. All secular and non-theist groups and persons are encouraged to rally with us on Reason On The Hill Day.

A Ray of Hope in a Dark Land

As a progressive, the Iowa Capitol Building is a dark, depressing place this time of year. Republicans in the Iowa Legislature outnumber Democrats by comfortable majorities in both the House (54 to 46) and Senate (32 to 18). They have the numbers to literally do whatever they want while they are in session. And what they want rarely has anything to do with promoting civil rights, economic justice, public education, or respect for the environment.

Progressive victories are few and far between. But occasionally a ray of hope shines through the windows of the Rotunda. A couple weeks ago, the amazing people at One Iowa pulled off a surprise win that shows that individuals can make a difference; that activists can influence their legislators’ votes on specific bills and issues.

In January and February, Iowa Senators and Representatives filed fourteen anti-LGBTQ bills. Not one of them survived the first funnel. Not One. Despite their unassailable majority, conservatives utterly failed to move any of them out of their respective committees. How is that possible?

One Iowa Action sounded the alarm, sent out action alerts, and Iowa citizens responded in numbers that sent a chill down the spines of the GOP leadership. That’s how. Keenan Crow and Courtney Reyes explain it all in this video and describe each of the bills. Please give it a watch. It was a wild ride.

A couple points stood out for me as an activist.

Evangelicals filed a series of bills designed to strip LGBTQ Iowans of their basic rights. One of them was HF 2164, an act to remove gender identity from the Iowa Civil Rights Act. Several civil rights groups led by One Iowa Action asked their members to call Representative Steven Holt, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, urging him to oppose this bill. In less than 24 hours, Mr. Holt cried uncle, promising that this bill would never make it out of the subcommittee.

On February 7, One Iowa Action sent out another action alert to their members to contact their individual legislators about about the onslaught of bigoted bills. By February 10, they had 850 email responses.

Legislators filed bigoted, regressive bills, activists sounded the alarm, Iowans responded, and the legislators listened — probably in fear for their jobs in their next election.

Don’t give up hope folks. Don’t throw up your hands in dispair. One Iowa just proved that your phone calls, your emails, your voice can make a difference. Be inspired by that ray of sunshine in the Statehouse. Reflect it back onto your congress critters and make them see the light of reason.

By Robert Cook

Activism Chair, Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers

Abortion Bills in the Iowa Legislature: Alive and Dead

[Edited to add HF 2478 to the list of bills that survived the funnel.]

The first funnel in the Iowa General Assembly came and went on Friday. The Iowa House and Senate narrowed the list of active bills, culling every one that hadn’t yet been voted out of a committee. My next series of posts will look at bills on different subjects — which ones survived and which ones ended up in the graveyard of discarded legislation. (Of course, no bill is guaranteed to stay dead as long as the General Assembly remains in session. Our legislators have ways of resurrecting the rotting corpses of their favorite bills right up until the day they adjourn. But I can’t worry about that until it happens.)

First up, Abortion.

ALIVE:

HJR 2004/SJR 2001: The Iowa Supreme Court has repeatedly struck down restrictive abortion bills on the grounds that the Iowa Constitution guarantees women the right to make their own medical decisions, including whether or not to have an abortion. This infuriated evangelicals in the Statehouse. These joint resolutions are their response — they want to amend the Iowa Constitution to declare that it no longer recognizes any right to an abortion. The Senate already approved their version. The House still has to vote on theirs — but they will certainly pass it. To become law, the amendment must pass the General Assembly again next year, and then be put to a statewide vote in a general election.

House Study Bill 678: This bill is a classic TRAP law (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers). If passed, it will require all abortion facilities to be licensed by the state, with annual inspections, additional onerous regulations, and a $2000 filing fee. Its floor manager is Holly Brink (R) Mahaska County.

House Study Bill 672: This bill claims to be about promoting “informed consent” for medication abortions but would in fact force abortion providers to lie to their patients. This bill repeats the demonstrably false claim that medication induced abortions can be “reversed” after the first medication has been given. No peer-reviewed, double-blind studies to that effect have ever been published in any reputable medical journal, no medical school teaches “abortion reversal”, and no abortion providers offer it as a service. Filed by Shannon Lundgren (R) Dubuque County.

Senate File 2215: This bill would force women seeking an abortion to have an invasive, unnecessary, costly ultrasound 72 hours prior to her abortion procedure. If that sounds familiar to you, that is because this exact bill passed a few years ago, went before the Iowa Supreme Court, and was declared unconstitutional. Now that Governor Reynolds has added a couple more evangelical partisan hacks to the Supreme Court, Brad Zaun (R) Polk County wants them to take another look at his favorite patriarchal zealotry. 

House File 2478: This bill would require death certificates for any miscarriage or abortion as early as 12 weeks. Current law sets the fetal age at 20 weeks. It also changes the word “fetus” to “bodily remains.” The bill would force parents to bury or cremate the remains if the loss of pregnancy occurs in a hospital.

DEAD:

HF 2390: This bill would have required any physician who provided services at an ambulatory surgical center to have admitting privileges at a local hospital. This bill doesn’t mention the word “abortion” anywhere, but if passed it would have put almost every abortion provider in the state out of business. Its author, Holly Brink, clearly hoped this would slide under the radar before anyone realized it was about abortion. But for now, it is dead.

HF 2352, by Jon Jacobson, Pottawattamie County: This bill would have made it easier for women who have had an abortion to sue the doctor who performed it — even if she wanted the abortion at the time, understood, and consented to it. The bill would have granted fetuses the same due process and equal protection under the law afforded to an adult.

Senate File 2033: Here is one that failed, but should have survived the funnel. SF 2033, filed by 15 Democrats, would have reinstated federal funding for family planning services that was stripped from Planned Parenthood last year. It is one of the few bills filed this year that would absolutely would have reduced the number of abortions performed in Iowa. Easy, widespread access to birth control and education reduces unwanted pregnancies. It has worked every time it has been tried and scientific studies back that up. But our conservative legislators don’t care about any of that. They refused to bring this bill to a vote. 

Seven Abortion Bills Filed So Far in Iowa

Seven abortion-related bills have been filed in the Iowa Legislature this session; six of them are horrible, and one should pass. But I am so far behind that I cannot possibly write seven separate articles. Instead, this post will include a short summary of each bill with links to the file online and contact info of the sponsors. I expect several of the worst will pass both houses and be signed into law by Governor Reynolds. The GOP controls both houses of the legislature and the Governor. They can do whatever they want. And right now, they want to pander to their base: evangelical Christian voters who hate abortion.

First up: Senate Joint Resolution 2001: This is the proposed amendment to the Iowa Constitution stating that Iowa does not secure or protect a right to or require the funding of abortion. The Iowa Senate has already passed the resolution along party lines. The House will almost certainly vote in favor as well. To become law, two consecutive General Assembles must approve it and then go to a statewide vote in a general election. That could happen as early as 2022 so there is time to stop this. It all depends on whether Democrats can take control of at least one side of the Statehouse in November.

House File 2390, filed by the Committee on Human Resources: This bill is about emergency care policy and procedures for ambulatory surgical centers. This underhanded bill doesn’t even mention the word “abortion,” but it is one of the worst filed so far. Among other things, it would require prearranged written agreements with both an ambulance service and a local hospital transporting patients who need emergency services at an ER. No hospital in Iowa would sign that agreement. No Ambulance service in Iowa would sign that agreement. If this bill passes, it would effectively put every abortion provider in the state out of business.

House Study Bill 678, filed by the Committee on Human Resources.This bill would require all abortion facilities in Iowa to file for an annual license for a fee of $2000, and undergo annual inspections by the Department of Inspections and Appeals. In other words, this is a TRAP law (Targeted Regulations of Abortion Providers) designed to impose unneseccessary, costly rules on abortion facilities that don’t apply to any other outpatient surgery centers.

House File 2352, by Jacobson: This bill would allow for a parent, court-appointed guardian, or conservator to seek damages for personal injury to a viable fetus. It also grants the fetus due process and equal protection of the law separately from the mother. I don’t necessarily oppose the spirit of this bill. Women should be able to sue for damages a person who injures her fetus. But I think this bill would make it easier to sue abortion providers. If a woman has an abortion, then changes her mind sometime later, she could sue the abortion provider and win, even if she wanted it at the time and the doctor performed it without complications. Standard caveat: I am not a lawyer so I could be wrong about this bill. If anyone out there with relevant legal expertise would like to weigh in on this, I would love to hear from you.

Jon Jacobson (R), Pottawattomie County

House file 2316 filed by Jon Thorup: This bill claims to be about informed consent for medication abortions. It would require a large sign to be conspicuously posted in every abortion facility stating that it may be possible to reverse the effects of a medication abortion involving abortion-inducing drugs. This is a lie. No proper, double-blind, peer-reviewed studies of abortion reversals have ever been published in any reputable medical journal. No medical schools teach how to do them, and no abortion providers offer to perform them. Science does not support abortion reversals. Period.

Senate File 2215, filed by Brad Zaun: I have previously written about this bill. Iowa law currently requires all women seeking an abortion to have a costly, unnecessary, invasive ultrasound 72 hours prior to the procedure. Women can choose to listen to the fetal heartbeat and the doctor’s description of the images if they want to. This bill “fixes” the law by FORCING women to listen to the fetal heartbeat and the doctor’s description of the images. But it isn’t all bad. Brad Zaun’s bill graciously allows women to avert their eyes from the screen and stick fingers in their ears to muffle the sound.

Senate File 2033 filed by Janet Peterson, Liz Mathis, Jackie Smith, Zach Wahls, Tony Bisignano, Jim Lykam, Eric Giddons, Herman Quirmbach, Joe Bolkcom, Amanda Ragan, Claire, Celsi, William Dotzler, Robert Hogg, Nate Boulton, and Todd Taylor. This bill seeks to reverse the disastrous 2017 law that blocked Planned Parenthood clinics in Iowa from accessing federal grants that pay for family planning services and education. It is the only abortion-related bill filed so far this year that would actually reduce the number of unwanted children born — and therefore the number of abortions performed in Iowa. This approach is science-based and proven to work. But it probably won’t get a single Republican vote and will likely die in committee.

If these bills upset you, if you value women’s rights and their ability to make their own decisions about their health and lives, please contact your state senators and representatives. Call them, email them, write to them. Tell them to oppose every one of these bills except the last. Do it now. Do it tomorrow. Do it next week. Talk to them until they fear for their jobs in their next election.