Sen. Annette Sweeney floor managed the bill. She explained in her opening comments that the bill closed a loophole in current code which allowed parents to disseminate obscene material to their own children.
Sweeney started her opening comments at 4:49:36 p.m. on April 1, 2019. Every senator in the chamber voted in favor of the bill. It passed 48-0 with the 48th vote being cast at 4:51:29.
In less than two minutes, the bill was brought up, “debated,” and passed unanimously on the floor of the Iowa Senate.
In case you think maybe the two senators who weren’t there would have been against it, both were Republican. So highly unlikely, especially since one was Sen. Brad Zaun.
Not a single organization registered against the bill. Not one.
It went to the Iowa House Judiciary Committee, where it died a slow death. In March of 2020, the bill passed subcommittee, though an amendment was recommended.
The bill passed committee on March 10. It was put on the House calendar, but never brought to the floor by Iowa House leadership.
Representative Steve Holt filed an amendment, allowing parents to disseminate and exhibit obscene materials to minors as long as the parent hasn’t been convicted of or adjudicated delinquent for any sex offense classified as a tier I, II or III offense under Chapter 692A which would require registration as a sex offender. Or a parent who is required to register in another jurisdiction under the other jurisdiction’s sex offender registry for a sex offense.
According to The Gazette, a central Iowa woman told the outlet her daughter’s father showed the 9-year-old little girl at least 15 photos of her father’s wife’s naked breasts and genitals and told the girl it was a “daddy/daughter secret.”
The woman tried pressing charges but was told the man did not violate the law because Iowa Code Section 728.2 exempts parents from the law prohibiting the dissemination or exhibition of obscene materials to minors.
Keep in mind every Democrat senator in 2019 voted in support of this bill to prohibit parents from disseminating obscene material to minors. Yet look at the fight from Democrats, and some Republicans, when it comes to teachers and librarians doing it.
