Year in review: Iowa’s GOP banishes Planned Parenthood

*This storyline was voted as the top storyline of 2017 by Gazette staff. Other top storylines include the Cedar Rapids casino failure, the debate over fireworks, and Medicaid in Iowa, among others.*

In one of many controversial moves earlier this year, the Iowa Legislature turned away federal money so it could establish a state program that denies public funds for health clinics that also perform abortions.

The Republican-controlled House and Senate shifted family planning funding in the nearly $1.8 billion health and human service budget, deciding to forgo federal dollars through Medicaid that covered services for low-income Iowans, including birth control and sexually transmitted infection testing.

Legislators instead opted to use $3.3 million of state funds for the Family Planning Program, Iowa's new effort that excludes abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood.

The new program helps cover services for women and men with household incomes up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level.

Critics said the bill would limit health care options for women. In 2016, more than 12,000 Iowans across the state received these services.

The move cut nearly $2 million out of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland's budget, affecting more than 14,600 patients. As a result, the women's health organization closed clinics in Burlington, Bettendorf, Keokuk and Sioux City.

Providers also barred from the program under the new rules include the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and UnityPoint Health, which operates St. Luke's Hospital in Cedar Rapids.