Republican State Rep. Lee Hein is touting his pro-life position on campaign literature as he runs against conservative State Rep. Steven Bradley. Here is one example:
“Lee is strongly pro-life…”
It begs the question — is he? Really? Is he “strongly pro-life?”
Thankfully there is an easy way to find the answer to that question — one just has to examine his voting record.
In 2021, the Iowa House passed a proposed constitutional amendment stating that Iowa’s Constitution does not grant a right to an abortion or funding of abortion.
Lee Hein voted against it. The amendment will not stop one single abortion from happening. And the amendment will not even go into effect unless a majority of Iowans votes in support of it. But Hein wasn’t even “pro-life” enough to give Iowa voters a say on whether their state constitution contains a right to an abortion.
No. Hein instead took his vote and, a year after being one of the reasons the bill didn’t get a floor vote, voted against it.
Nobody who is pro-life — let alone “strongly pro-life” — would vote against such a measure.
There’s an old saying in politics. We like to remind our readers of it often…
In 2018, the Iowa House voted on a bill that would prohibit unborn babies with a detectable heartbeat from being killed in the womb.
Lee Hein voted against it. That’s right, “strongly pro-life” Lee Hein voted in support of the continued killing of unborn babies with a detectable heartbeat.
So, is Lee Hein “strongly pro-life?” Hardly.
One could easily make the argument he is slightly even pro-abortion based strictly on his vote regarding the proposed constitutional amendment.
There are two plausible explanations…
- Whoever created Hein’s campaign literature accidentally made a typo and misspelled “pro-abortion.”
- Hein is attempting to deceive voters and doesn’t believe they are smart enough nor capable of doing simple research when it comes to his voting record on pro-life legislation over the last few years.
There is another old quote in politics…
“You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”
Perhaps Hein is hoping to fool them for just a few months here during primary season. But Iowans aren’t idiots.
Lee Hein isn’t “strongly pro-life.” He isn’t even “pro-life.”
Rather than pretending to be a conservative, he’d be better served just to run as he governs — a middle-of-the-road moderate who doesn’t believe unborn babies have a right to life.
Just be honest with people. If he’s representing his district well, he should have no problem telling the truth about his position on pro-life issues.
Besides, an honest disagreement is much better than a bald-faced lie so easily proven to be untrue.
