Students share opinions on proposed abortion ammendment

The Iowa House of Representatives passed a constitutional amendment on Jan. 27 that may result in ending the right to abortion in Iowa. The Republicans and Democrats have discussed this bill’s objective, which would add this amendment to the Iowa Constitution:

“26. To defend and protect unborn children, we the people of the State of Iowa declare that this Constitution does not recognize, grant, or secure a right to abortion or require the public funding of abortion.

Iowa House Joint Resolution 5”

The Republicans have seen this as protecting one of Iowa’s laws that they have already put in place, “…the intention is to protect Iowa’s ban on abortion’s more than 20 weeks after conception and also prevent taxpayer-funded abortions,” Republican Rep. Steve Holt, R-Denison said. 

Students and staff have different reactions to the proposed amendment. Peet eighth grader Emma Frohling said, “The [proposed] amendment that has passed may have a positive and negative impact. I believe abortion is an issue and the number of procedures done each year need to go down tremendously, and this [proposed] amendment would help that. However, we need to keep abortion available to women for circumstances such as rape, and this amendment may lead to a ban in abortions all together. As a Republican and Christian, I am torn whether this [proposed] amendment will result in a good or bad way.” 

Although the Roe v. Wade is still protecting the right to abortion across the United States, Democrats fear that if the U.S Supreme Court will hand more authority over to the states, that that may allow Iowa to completely ban abortion. 

“I believe this is unfair to every women for Iowa to pass an amendment that is going to attempt to limit/ban abortions because it is regulating a woman’s fundamental rights to health care. If it does end up going to the Supreme Court and resulting in a state ban for abortions, not only would it be completely wrong, but it would definitely cause angry protests and result in even bigger divide amongst everyone in our nation,” sophomore Bella Mabon, a Democrat, said. 

The resolution ended up passing with a 55-44; three Republicans had voted against this action. The amendment has now been messaged to the State Senate for conference and in 2023 this will need to be passed again by both houses and then sent to Iowa voters to vote on amending the constitution.