Iowa GOP plan prohibits public funding for abortions, elective C-sections

DES MOINES – Over Democratic protests that a Capitol committee room is not the place to make medical decisions, Iowa House Republicans approved a health and human services budget prohibiting public funds for abortions and discouraging elective Cesareans sections.

Approved on a party line vote, 14-11, the plan that next goes to the full House also bans taxpayer-funding for birth control, cancer screenings or other services provided by Planned Parenthood.

Floor manager Rep. Dave Heaton, R-Mount Pleasant, said the opposition to taxpayer-funded abortions was a long-held position of the GOP majority.

“We are taking this position and standing firm,” Heaton said.

Rep. Lisa Heddens, D-Ames, wondered whether the prohibition would jeopardize Iowa's federal Medicaid funds. She suggested that women who were the victim of rape would be denied abortions. Likewise, public funds would not be available in cases where an abortion would be performed to save the life of the mother, Heddens said.

“It's not a prohibition. We're just not paying for it,” Heaton said. “We're saying there is no public money for abortions.” Heaton said.

He also sought to assure committee members that his caucus was not “trying to get in between an emergency procedure or a medically necessary C-section, but we are saying that perhaps one should really examine whether or not the C-section is necessary before its performed.”

However, Rep. Kirsten Running-Marquardt, D- Cedar Rapids, said she wasn't aware of an “epidemic” of Cesarean sections.

“I have not seen evidence of elective C-sections in Iowa being something that is an epidemic problem,” she says. It's “crazy” to think women are having C-sections, which she and Heaton agreed is major surgery, for the convenience.

“I just feel like we're speaking two different languages here today,” Running-Marquardt said. “It just shows me that we need more women legislators here.”

The use of Cesarean sections in Iowa has increased from 19 percent of all deliveries in 1996 to 30 percent in 2010, according to data from the Centers for Disease and Control Department of Health data.

The provision in SF 446 was part of a cost-containment measure that Heaton could save the state $1.2 million a year. Typically, a C-section without complications costs somewhere between $2,500 and $3,000 more than a vaginal childbirth stay without complications costs.

The House plan reduces the Senate budget plan from $1.89 million to $1.7 million for the coming fiscal year. It increases the supplemental appropriations for the Medicaid, IowaCare, and Adoption Subsidy programs from $54 in the Senate version to $62 million.

The bill is likely to end up in a House-Senate conference committee “where the real decisions are made,” Heaton said.