Capitol Notebook: County attorneys could sue schools for not following state law under bill

DES MOINES — County attorneys would be able to sue school districts and superintendents if an individual in a school district is concerned they are violating state law.

Two legislators on a three-member Senate Education Subcommittee on Tuesday advanced Senate File 178, which would allow individuals to bring concerns to their county attorneys

Subcommittee member Sen. Mike Zimmer, D-DeWitt, declined to support the legislation, pointing to the process that is currently in place if people or parents have concerns.

“I’m just not sure what part of the appeals process and the Iowa Association of School Boards, primer and board policies that are already in existence is not working,” Zimmer said. “Just because someone doesn’t get a decision that they agree with doesn’t mean that the process doesn’t work.”

While there are avenues parents and individuals can take when they are concerned, Shellie Flockhart, a parent from Dallas County, said she is having trouble challenging curriculum she believes violates a state law.

Flockhart said she expressed concerns in September that the subject matter being taught in her child’s class violated a law passed in 2021, which banned K-12 schools and public colleges from teaching “divisive concepts,” including that moral character is determined by one’s race or sex, or that the United States and Iowa are systematically or fundamentally racist. Flockhart did not specify how she believes the subject matter violates the law.

“I have gone through all of the channels that are appropriate,” Flockhart said. “Then there's nothing that actually happens, no resolution. It just keeps going through phone calls and emails and continues on and on. So as a parent, it gets very, very frustrating.”

Dave Daughton, representing the School Administrators of Iowa and Rural School Advocates of Iowa, said there already is a process to appeal to the Iowa Attorney General or to go through the Iowa Department of Education. He added if a policy violates state law, a superintendent would be subject to ethics violations.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Doug Campbell, R-Mason City, said the current system for addressing violations is not working.

“This is not intended to be punitive,” Campbell said. “This is to be instructional and motivational, if we take it to the extreme, it will have some mild, tentative effect.”

House Republicans file bills to restrict access to medication abortion

Bills introduced Monday by Iowa House Republicans would ban access to medication abortion in the state and force health care professionals to provide patients with inaccurate information about so-called medication abortion reversals, abortion-rights activist said.

HF 423 would make it unlawful to manufacture or dispense medicine for medication abortions, which account for 74 percent of all abortions in Iowa. Those who violate the law would face a Class C felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $1,370 to $13,660.

HSB 186 would require medication abortion providers and the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services to publicly post information about “abortion reversals.” It also requires patients to sign off that they have received the information abortion-rights advocates say is meant to mislead people into thinking medication abortions are unsafe and reversible.

Medication abortion involves terminating a pregnancy non-surgically through a combination of two prescription drugs — mifepristone and misoprostol — during the first trimester of pregnancy. Both are safe, effective medications, according to federal regulators.

The Food and Drug Administration has found that medication abortion is a safe and highly effective method of pregnancy termination. When taken, medication abortion successfully terminates the pregnancy 99.6 percent of the time, with a 0.4 percent risk of major complications, and an associated mortality rate of less than 0.001 percent.

The American College of Obstetrician and Gynecologists says claims regarding abortion reversal treatment are not based on science, do not meet clinical standards and are “unproven and unethical.”

House Republicans advance revoking library protections

Libraries would no longer be exempt from state obscenity laws under legislation approved by Republicans on the House Education Committee on Tuesday.

Democrats warned that House File 274 would make libraries subject to frivolous lawsuits brought by individuals who might object to certain books and other materials in libraries if those individuals believe the materials to be obscene.

The bill passed out of the committee on a 14-8 vote and is now eligible for debate by the full Iowa House.

Anti-SLAPP bill gets bipartisan committee support

The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday unanimously approved a bill to limit lawsuits that are meant to chill free speech.

A companion bill in the Senate also received unanimous committee support last week — a potential signal that the legislation might become law this year. The full House has approved so-called anti-SLAPP bills in recent years that lacked support in the Senate.

SLAPP is an acronym for strategic lawsuits against public participation. House Study Bill 116 and Senate File 47 would allow those who are targeted with lawsuits based on their constitutionally protected speech to seek expedited dismissals in court, potentially saving them substantial amounts of money on legal fees. More than two-thirds of states have an anti-SLAPP law.

"It's not a Democrat or a Republican issue. It's a fairness issue," said Rep. Steve Holt, R-Denison, who leads the House committee. "It's passed with bipartisan support, perhaps unanimously, several times, and the Senate has never taken it up. I believe it'll be different this year."

Holt took up the issue several years ago after a former police officer unsuccessfully sued a western Iowa newspaper for its reporting about the officer's romantic entanglements with teenagers, including a 17-year-old girl. The situation financially weakened the Carroll Times Herald, which was later sold by its longtime family owners.

In recent months, a company that wants to build a multi-billion-dollar carbon dioxide pipeline system insinuated it might sue several people who have spoken publicly against its project.

And the Des Moines Register faces lawsuits for its publication of poll results before the presidential election that showed President Donald Trump might lose in Iowa. He won by 13 percentage points.

It's unclear when the legislation might be considered by the full chambers of the House and Senate.

"This is good public policy, and I hope it becomes law this year," said Rep. Megan Srinivas, D-Des Moines.

Senate Republicans approve prenatal education requirement

Iowa schools would be required to include instruction on pregnancy and fetal development, including video instruction, for 4th- through 12th-grade students under legislation approved by Senate Republicans.

All Republican senators supported and all Democratic senators opposed Senate File 275 in the 31-13 vote that passed it out of the chamber. The bill is now eligible for consideration in the Iowa House.

Previous, similar versions of the bill would have required schools use a specific video, titled “Baby Olivia” and produced by an anti-abortion organization, in schools’ human growth and development instruction. Senate File 275 does not require a specific video, just one that “a high-definition ultrasound video showing the presence of the brain, heart, and other vital organs in early fetal development.”

Iowa Sen. Kevin Alons, R-Salix, said the bill capitalizes on the intersection of “life” and technology. Multiple Senate Democrats said they oppose the bill in part because of its specific prescription of classroom curriculum, which they said is best left to educators.

Gazette-Lee Des Moines Bureau

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