Welcome to the first BWK newsletter this session. We need input from Iowans so I appreciate your feedback and questions.
During the 2024 campaign, we were overwhelmed with messaging about reproductive freedom, access to abortion care, in vitro fertilization (IVF), and birth control. Women’s health care in Iowa is in crisis and it is time to be honest and seriously address this issue.
Iowa has one of the highest rates of breast cancer in the country with numbers going up. We need a plan to stop this surge of breast cancer cases and to make sure that those who are diagnosed have access to the best care.
Did you know that 42 birthing centers have closed in rural Iowa since 2000?
Maybe you read about a pregnant woman whose clunky jeep couldn’t complete the 2-mile trip from her house to the University of Iowa’s outreach clinic in her hometown.
Her lack of reliable transportation becomes an even more serious issue when her baby is due. She has 40 miles to commute to UI Hospitals and Clinics. She can’t give birth in her hometown hospital because its birthing unit closed in 2020. This is a common story across Iowa.
Rising breast cancer rates and lack of access to labor and delivery are two reasons to be concerned about women’s health care but there is more.
Iowa is
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dead last in obstetricians and gynecologists per capita.
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seeing increases in infant mortality rates in double-digit numbers
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seeing increases in maternal death rates.
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18th in the nation in rates of Gonorrhea per capita. Several clinics where STDs were diagnosed and treated were closed in 2017 due to legislation passed here by the GOP-controlled legislature.
Doctors need more flexibility and less government interference to treat women.
Transportation is an obstacle to getting women to health care. One physician described two babies who were going to be born with permanent disabilities if they didn’t get the medical treatment they needed prebirth. The trip from Grinnell to Des Moines for treatment created the obstacle. Is that an hour drive?
The GOP-led Iowa Legislature knocked 1300 pregnant women off of Medicaid which provided them with prenatal care. Prenatal care is the answer to saving babies in this state.
In 2023, the GOP-led Iowa House of Representatives passed a ban on IVF treatment. Fortunately, this was killed in the Senate but is still being promoted by the Family Leader, an influential Christian political arm of the Iowa GOP.
Iowa women need good and complete medical care, for both mothers and children. I want children to grow up in a healthy family. Death rates for women aged 15–44 in abortion-restrictive states were 34 percent higher than in abortion-access states. I can’t imagine growing up without my mom. Can you? When death rates for moms in abortion-restrictive states are 34% higher than in abortion-access states, it is clear which states value healthy families and which do not.
Legislators must engage experts who have spent years studying medicine and work with Iowans using their expertise to provide extraordinary care. Under Iowa’s abortion ban, doctors are hesitant to initiate the life-saving procedure that’s conducted after miscarriage. Imagine being afraid to ask for help to save your life? Imagine being a doctor who doesn’t know if she has the legal right to save a patient’s life.
In her Condition of the State address, the Governor recommended increasing residencies in Iowa and expanding our forgivable loan programs for physicians who agree to practice in rural Iowa. These are programs I can support although they are wishful thinking unless we allow physicians to use best practices and provide a welcoming environment for all.
