The Iowa Catholic Conference has set up a petition on its website, urging Iowans to support a constitutional amendment that would read:
“To defend the dignity of all human life, and to protect mothers and unborn children from efforts to expand abortion even to the day of birth, we the people of Iowa declare: Nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to recognize, grant or secure a right to an abortion or require the public funding of it.”
The article from the Catholic Conference states the people of Iowa, not the Iowa Supreme Court, should decide how Iowa regulates abortion.
In a June 2018 decision, the Iowa Supreme Court struck down a 72-hour waiting period before an abortion can be performed. The Court said it had identified a “fundamental right to abortion” in the Iowa Constitution.
“Its action erased the rights and protections of an entire class of humanity and makes Iowa a potential haven for unrestricted abortions,” the article reads.
More than 150 years ago, the same Legislature that passed the Iowa Constitution also acted to ban abortion except to save the life of the mother.
“There is no credible argument that the Legislature intended abortion to be among rights found in the Constitution or Bill of Rights. Law and society have changed during the past century and a half, but biology has not. There’s one truth that can’t be argued away: the little girl in her mother’s womb: she’s a baby,” states the article.
Should Roe v. Wade be struck down at the Supreme Court, then the abortion laws return to the states. Currently, in Iowa, abortion is a “fundamental right” due to the Iowa Supreme Court’s ruling.
“We believe almost no existing or future regulation of abortion can survive a court challenge in Iowa,” says the post from the Iowa Catholic Conference. “At risk are restrictions on late-term abortions, parental notification before an abortion by a child, or taxpayer funding of abortions.”
Similar amendments have passed by the people of Tennessee, Alabama and West Virginia.
Constitutional amendments in Iowa must first pass the Legislature in two general assemblies and then must pass a vote of the People.
