Here is Part 2 of the 2022 legislative session accomplishments:
Pro-Life
When I campaigned for office I said I would work for: Pro-life legislation
What we did:
MOMS Bill: This stands for More Options for Maternal Support. It is a program that will offer state grant funds to non-profit organizations that support healthy pregnancies and childbirth instead of abortion. These are the many pregnancy resource centers in our state.
What we still have left to do: We are pretty limited until we get the “Protect Life” amendment passed in 2021 into our Constitution. The legislature needs to pass it again in 2023 and then it can go on the ballot for a vote of the people. That will enable the legislature to pass laws better protecting the unborn.
Constitutional Rights
When I campaigned for office I said I would work for: expanding 2nd Amendment rights and protecting religious liberty and our constitutional rights
What we did:
COVID Vaccine Mandates: Passed last fall, this requires that employers that mandate their employees get the COVID shot must waive the requirement at the employee’s request for a medical or religious exemption. Employer is required to honor an employee’s request for a medical or religious exemption, and the employer must provide reasonable accommodations.
COVID Vaccine & Schools: Schools are prohibited from requiring COVID vaccination for enrollment.
Election Integrity Reforms: We prohibited private money from being used to administer elections as was done in Wisconsin in 2020.
Elder Abuse Law: Increased penalties for crimes against seniors of physical, psychological, and emotional abuse and financial exploitation.
What we still have left to do: Plenty!
- We still need to more fully protect our 1st Amendment religious freedom right to live and work according to our faith without fear of being punished by the government.
- We should do what we can at the state level to protect citizens’ 1st Amendment free speech rights on social media.
- The “2nd Amendment” will be on your ballot this November. Vote to put it into our Iowa Constitution!
- Our 4th Amendment right to medical freedom needs to be strengthened. The ban on COVID vaccine passports needs to be extended to employers so employees are protected from having to show proof of a COVID shot, as well as to nursing homes, hospitals, and doctor’s offices so visitors can see their loved ones and patients can get treatment. Medical boards should be prohibited from disciplining doctors for prescribing drugs off-label for COVID, such as ivermectin. We should explore allowing ivermectin to be sold over-the-counter as was done in Tennessee. We should also expand the Right-to-Try law for COVID patients.
- Emergency law needs to be updated to include greater protections for the rights of citizens, families, businesses, and churches during a public disaster emergency.
- More needs to be done to shore up election integrity on the cyber side-ballot security markings, non-internet capable “counting” machines, empowering citizens to help clean up voter rolls, and steering us back to in-person voting with absentee balloting only allowed under special circumstances.
- We need to address the issue of pornography as it is totally pervasive now in society, especially on the internet, destroying children, marriages, and families and feeding human trafficking, virtually unhindered. To protect children and assist parents, we need to require internet-capable devices to have their filters turned on when purchased. We also need to repeal the exemption from the pornography laws for schools and libraries and adopt an “anti-grooming” law which prohibits minors viewing sexually explicit and pornographic materials, programs, and performances.
- We need to protect privacy and safety of women and children by preserving traditional access to restrooms, shower facilities, locker rooms, women’s shelters, etc.
- Our 5th Amendment private property rights are at risk with the possibility the Iowa Utilities Board may allow private companies to seize farmland in the form of easements to use for a carbon capture pipeline. This is not for public use, but for private use and economic development which are not appropriate for the use of eminent domain power.
Conclusion: I was happy with the productive session we had where a number of important things were accomplished! I appreciate all the input and support I received from so many of you that made these accomplishments possible! Thank you so much! As you know there is much more that still must be done and we will be back next session to work on those things.
There are many other concerns that I worked on that are important but for lack of space I did not cover those. Please feel free to contact me if I did not cover something of concern to you.
