Iowa Senate approves reappointments to medical board

DES MOINES - The Iowa Senate voted Tuesday to reconfirm two members of the Iowa Board of Medicine, a state regulatory panel which has been embroiled in a controversy over pills used to induce abortions that are dispensed by doctors using audio-video links with their patients -- many in rural clinics.

Senators voted 42-8 to approve Gov. Terry Branstad's reappointment of Diane Clark to the regulatory board and 43-7 to reappoint Dr. Hamed Tewfix, an Iowa City oncologist who has served as the panel's vice chairman. The confirmations were opposed by majority Democrats, who cast no votes.

Gubernatorial appointees are required to receive at least 34 affirmative votes to meet the two-thirds majority threshold required for confirmation. Currently, there are 26 Democrats and 24 Republicans in the Iowa Senate.

Earlier this month, senators voted to approve two new gubernatorial appointments to the Iowa Board of Medicine: Dr. Ronald Cheney of Carroll and Diane Cortese of Urbandale. Both were approved without a dissenting vote.

In 2013, the medical regulatory board voted 8-2 to bar the use of videoconferencing systems to provide abortion pills -- a rule that was stayed from being implemented by a court challenge brought by Planned Parenthood of the Heartland appealing the state board's action.