Branstad: Senate approach would not curb late-term abortions

DES MOINES – Gov. Terry Branstad said Tuesday he does not believe a Senate-passed measure would be effective in curbing late-term abortions in Iowa.

The five-term Republican said he would prefer that lawmakers send him a version closer to House File 657, a measure representatives approved in March that would ban abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy and effectively halt Nebraska Dr. LeRoy Carhart from opening a clinic in Council Bluffs to provide late-term abortions.

“I think the House bill is much more effective and I would hope that eventually the Senate will understand that we need to do more than just deal with the situation in Council Bluffs,” Branstad told reporters Tuesday.

“I don't think the Senate version is effective,” he added. “I think it's strictly designed just to provide cover. We need something that's going to be effective all over the state of Iowa, not something that's just a political thing.”

Democrats who control the Iowa Senate voted 26-23 on Monday to approve legislation that only would allow a “specialized outpatient surgical facility” to be granted a state certificate of need if it was located in “close proximity” to the five hospitals in Iowa that are qualified neonatology centers. Such centers are located in Cedar Rapids, Davenport, Des Moines and Iowa City, but not Council Bluffs, so Carhart could not proceed with his planned clinic, backers said.

The 23 Republicans present who opposed Senate File 534 because it did not go far enough in protecting life or preventing Iowa from becoming what they called the “late-term abortion Mecca of the Midwest.” Iowa law currently allows abortions after 24 weeks if a doctor decides the procedure is necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother.

“We have children that survive at 23 and 24 weeks and that's all the reason why we should not have abortions performed after 20 weeks,” Branstad said. “So I think it would be a tragedy for Iowa to become the late-term abortion capital of the Midwest. We should, I think, pattern what we do after what they did in Nebraska. It was effective there and that's why I'm hopeful that in the end the Senate will see that. I really think we need to have something that's going to be effective.”

However, backers of the Senate approach said it would meet lawmakers' shared objective of blocking the late-term abortion clinic in Council Bluffs without placing undue or unconstitutional burdens on medical procedures performed in Iowa.

Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, said S.F. 534 was a bill “that protects the life and health of the woman and the potentially viable fetus. What this bill does not do is put politicians and the government in the middle of a family's gut-wrenching decision about what to do when a planned pregnancy goes terribly wrong.”

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