Iowa doctors at the forefront of local abortion rights movement
Doctors have played the central role in advancing successful ballot initiatives
Doctors have played a central role in the grassroots movement that has emerged across the country to protect abortion rights. In Iowa, they face the prospect of seeking to flip state legislatures instead of using ballot initiatives to secure access to reproductive care.
Iowans For Health Liberty is a group of doctors who are fighting for the rights of their patients who want or need an abortion. Their goal is to select and elect candidates who support their stance. The money they raise will go to candidates at all levels of the political system. I spoke with Francesca Turner, the organization’s co-founder, about the history of Iowa abortion regulations and what the future holds.
“If you look historically when Roe happened, it was really the doctors and the public health providers who were like, ‘women are dying, and we have to stand up and do what's right,’” Turner said.
“There were probably lots of activists and people working on it, but what got the attention of the government and the media were public health providers saying, ‘This is devastating for women, and this is something we need to do.”
Iowa recently had a six-week ban on abortion go into effect after the state supreme court ruled it could. That’s problematic because many women don’t know they’re pregnant at that point and because they often may need reproductive care later in pregnancy for medical or personal reasons.
The law’s language is poorly worded. Turner said it sowed confusion.
“It's just very unclear. They don't know what they can or cannot do,” Turner said. “So it's just wreaking havoc in our state.”
When I reported on Ohio’s ballot initiative, I accompanied several doctors who canvassed the neighborhood, knocking on doors. They used cutting-edge digital technology to record information about voters and then used it later when the vote came around. When they talked to voters, they wore their medical overcoat, which gave them an air of medical authority.
Doctors are inherently trusted by most of the public, and so having them at the forefront of the movement has helped abortion rights seem like the mainstream view. One of the major criticisms I have of the Democratic National Convention is that it didn’t include the doctors who had passed the ballot initiative in Ohio, nor virtually any other grassroots activist in the country playing a significant role in the movement that has given Democrats so much power.
While the party linked its beliefs and fate to reproductive rights, the people primarily responsible for the successes weren’t rewarded with speaking opportunities or events in Chicago that could have raised funds for these efforts.
It will be hardgoing in the state. The Republicans hold a trifecta in government, solidly controlling the state house and senate. Much of Iowa’s legislative districts are in rural areas, which Democrats have struggled to gain or ignored in political plans for years, if not decades. They are an afterthought during presidential races when the desire is to run up the vote tally in urban areas that tend to go for Democrats. So funding for down-ballot races in places like Iowa or Texas isn’t sufficient.
I’ve written about this on social media, but I’ll also express it here. The money that was donated to groups like Planned Parenthood and Reproductive Freedom for All should go to building state parties in places like Texas and other states where abortion is restricted. It shouldn’t be allocated to getting a Democratic president elected. It’s at the state level where progress will be made.
The types of candidates that appeal in these areas–plain-spoken with a knack for using colorful idioms–are more likely to be found in rural areas. So, creating a pool of candidates to select appealing statewide office-holders depends on them first winning smaller offices like county commissioners and those working out of the county municipal building. Those positions require smaller offices, like small-town mayors or school boards. Then, they could run in primaries for statewide office.
A lot of people would dispute it by saying that protections at the federal level would make advancements at the state level moot. But that doesn’t acknowledge the harsh reality that you must get 60 votes in the Senate to repeal the Hyde Amendment or the Comstock Act. So, a grassroots political movement must start at the local level and then build up to flipping the Senate in that manner by fostering an environment that produces candidates who could win in places like Texas or Iowa. Or force Republicans to start voting to advance those issues as part of a compromise for them to hold on to power.
In Iowa, the doctors will undertake a long and challenging campaign to secure abortion rights again.
“When I go around and speak, I just want people to understand what is happening in other states is going to happen in Iowa,” Turner said. “We didn't really know before, but we know now.”