Abortion funding could stall Iowa budget negotiations

DES MOINES - The potential battle has loomed since last summer, when many conservatives were enraged by secretly recorded videos showing an employee of a women's health care provider discussing the transfer of aborted fetal tissue for research.

A legal review of the secretly filmed videos showed Planned Parenthood broke no laws. A Texas grand jury filed charges against two individuals who helped produce the videos.

But if a legislative clash over public funding for women's health care providers that perform abortions is to take place in Iowa, it will happen soon.

State lawmakers are beginning to craft the state budget. One negotiation that could prove highly contentious is whether some of the $1.8 billion dedicated to the state Health and Human Services Department's budget should go toward women's health care providers that provide abortions.

Republicans generally want to strip public funding from those women's health care providers, such as Planned Parenthood, and Democrats think funding should remain in place so women can choose where to get their health care services, including abortions.

In Iowa, no state dollars fund abortion services, but some conservatives want to take the next step and cut all funding to any provider that performs abortions.

Roughly 10 states have enacted legislation to defund women's health care providers that perform abortions. Some of those actions have wound up in court.

Because the Iowa Legislature is under split-party control, the two political parties must reach agreement on issues of great disagreement. Last year, the Republican-led House passed legislation that removed state funding from Planned Parenthood, but that was rejected by the Democratic-led Senate.

The House legislation ultimately was left out of the final budget plan.

The videos that surfaced last summer so upset many conservatives that the question is whether Republican legislators will take a more firm stance on defunding Planned Parenthood and other health care providers that offer abortion services.

'I would say there's much more (political) will in our caucus to get that done this year,” said Rep. Walt Rogers, R-Cedar Falls.

A legal review of the secretly filmed videos showed Planned Parenthood broke no laws. A Texas grand jury filed charges against two individuals who helped produce the videos.

Possible budget delay

If enough Iowa Republican lawmakers decide to dig in their heels on defunding Planned Parenthood, it could delay lawmakers' efforts to complete the state budget.

'I'm speaking only for myself, but I'm willing to put a strong stand up for (defunding Planned Parenthood) if it comes over here,” said Sen. David Johnson, R-Ocheyedan, a member of the Legislature's health care budget committee.

The committee includes members from both parties in the House and Senate.

The top Republican leaders in the Capitol, Gov. Terry Branstad and House Speaker Linda Upmeyer, have said they will propose a health care budget that does not allocate public funds to women's health care providers that perform abortions, just as they did last year.

'We worked with the House throughout the fall, and we put (the plan) in our budget, so we're very supportive of that,” Branstad said last week. 'We think it's a reasonable approach, and it still provides women's health services. But it doesn't do it with groups that are providing abortions.

'So we think it's a reasonable way to do it - provide the services but avoid the controversy of funding Planned Parenthood.”

But Democrats are sure to resist such a provision again, and neither Branstad nor Upmeyer has said to what extent they will press Democrats to keep a defunding mechanism in the final, negotiated health care budget.

'We did not agree to it last year, and I don't see that changing this year,” said Sen. Amanda Ragan of Mason City, the top Senate Democrat on the health care budget committee.

Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City and another member of the health care budget committee, agreed Democrats are unlikely to agree to defunding Planned Parenthood.

'We think women in Iowa want to have access to women's health care services. We'd be strongly opposed to any changes in access,” Bolkcom said. Defunding Planned Parenthood 'is kind of a perennial volley from folks. We're going to resist it.”

That places the decision back on Republicans, particularly those in leadership.

'If the Senate sends it back (without a defunding provision), we'll have a decision to make,” Rogers said.

Rep. Linda Miller, R-Bettendorf, who also sits on the health care budget committee, said she does not yet have a sense for how strong the desire is among her colleagues to dig in on defunding Planned Parenthood.

'It's hard to tell, honestly. …

I've done (the health care budget) for five sessions now, and each session's a little different,” Miller said. 'Once (lawmakers) get the sniff that they can get out of here (by finishing the budget and ending the legislative session), sometimes that's motivating, like a herd of cattle that smells water.”

Miller said crafting a state budget and policy under split control is about 'the art of the possible.”

'Our bill has to go through the Senate. (Rep. Dave Heaton, the top House Republican on the budget committee) and I have to convince our Senate counterparts that it's a good idea,” Miller said. 'That's not easy.”

Conservatives outside the Statehouse are pressing Republican lawmakers to hold firm.

The anti-abortion advocacy group Iowa Right to Life has more than 800 signatures on an online petition calling for the defunding of Planned Parenthood. The Christian group The Family Leader has been pressing state legislators, and especially the governor, to defund Planned Parenthood.

The Family Leader's president and chief executive officer, Bob Vander Plaats, ran against Branstad in the 2010 gubernatorial Republican primary, and he spoke about defunding Planned Parenthood last week during an appearance on an Iowa conservative radio show.

'We are putting all hands on deck to get them to do the right thing, and I think the House is emboldened to do so, but will they be willing to stand and say we're not going to pass a budget that funds Planned Parenthood,” Vander Plaats said on the radio show.

'The governor needs to stand with the emboldened House and say (to Senate Democrats), ‘We'll stay here as long as you want to stay here, but we're not moving until you pass that budget without funding Planned Parenthood.'”

Vander Plaats said if the Legislature passes a budget without defunding Planned Parenthood, Branstad should use his executive authority to terminate Medicaid contracts with the organization.

Medicaid is funded jointly by state and federal dollars.

Branstad has said state Attorney General Tom Miller, a Democrat, has advised the state does not have the authority to take such executive action, and Branstad said other states that have tried have lost in court.