Although 61% of the state of Iowa’s population is in favor of allowing abortion in most cases, the State Legislature has passed, and now the State Supreme Court has upheld, a ban on abortion after detection of fetal cardiac activity. The law allows exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother. I don’t know if there is any limitations on any of those exceptions. Like there must be a criminal report of rape or incest, or how close to death the mother is before intervention could be done.
I recall that fetal anomalies are not included in exceptions because having a child with Down’s Syndrome, or anything else, is God’s Gift. If the child dies early or causes emotional/physical/financial pain to the families of such children, it’s also God’s Will. (I really don’t want to sound that these children with physical and/or mental disabilities aren’t all unwanted, a burden, etc — I just believe that the parents should be able to decide for themselves if they are capable/willing to take on the challenges these children bring to the families.)
However, the State of Iowa is not going to do anything to help the families in the raising of the children (disabled or not), nor for the medical care of the mother to be. Reynolds has been cutting back on Medicaid, a little more each year. They think that they did a great thing by ‘expanding’ care to new mothers to a year after birth. But, they cut the income cap down to something like 25k a year. Reynolds also declined the Federal program for summer nutrition for children this year, saying that Iowa can do it themselves and better…..
The Iowa Republicans have been cutting budgets so much that there is now a 3 billion dollar surplus and is cutting income tax to a flat 3.5% starting next year. They need to spend the money on education, children, infrastructure, healthcare, etc.
Speaking of education, the voucher program has enticed more people than the state expected in accepting it. The voucher will give up to 7k per student to the ‘private’ school (the voucher also allows for home schooling, private for profit, and religious schools (can’t wait for a Jewish, Muslim, or Hindu school to open and give them a fit)). With this guaranteed 7k, most of the schools have dramatically upped their tuition. The program has been so ‘popular’ that a new law is going into effect Monday that will mandate that if a school district decides to close a building due to lowered enrollment, age, etc, that if a private school is the highest bidder, they get it.
Cedar Rapids closed 2 elementary schools because the buildings are outdated to today’s needs and lower enrollment (there are new elementary schools being built). This past week they sold one of the schools to an art institute with agreements of co-operations. The second was sold to a developer to convert the building into apartments with 2 units being set aside for lower income or local teachers. At the last minute a private christian school offered twice what the developer offered. CRCSD still sold it to the developer with the explicit comment that they didn’t want to sell to the competition. The private school is probably going to appeal to the state about the sale.
Reynolds and the rest of the republicans are quickly following the leads of Texas and Florida……