Hinson looks for political cover on reproductive rights in Iowa

Iowa’s tornado season has been record-breaking. But this isn’t the only place experiencing ferocious spinning.

There’s U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson’s office, where conditions are favorable for dizzying conditions whenever issues pertaining to women’s reproductive rights come up.

Take cover. Political cover.

The latest example comes as congressional Democrats sought to pass legislation guaranteeing access nationwide to contraceptives. It would protect providers who offer contraception and covers “any drug, device, or biological product intended for use in the prevention of pregnancy.”

States would be denied the power to impede access. And the Department of Justice is given the authority to enforce the law’s protections.

Most Republicans, including Hinson, oppose the measure.

Hinson rolled out her own bill allowing women ages 18 and up to buy some oral contraceptives over the counter. It requires the Food and Drug Administration to fast-track reviews of oral contraceptives already deemed safe. And the General Accounting office is instructed to study the amount of money spent on increased access to contraception.

You know it’s a great bill when it includes a study. Sen. Joni Ernst has filed a similar measure in the Senate.

What it does not include is any guaranteed access to contraceptives. It focuses only on oral contraceptives, no other methods. There’s nothing that says states can’t curtail access. It leaves out teenagers who may need the pill. It’s roughly the same bill she trotted out in 2022 when her Democratic opponent, Liz Mathis, attacked her reproductive rights record.

Her long record of voting to ban abortion and curtail reproductive rights will be tough to hide.

Her bill is not a terrible idea, just underwhelming, and a poor substitute for the Democrats’ measure. But Hinson insists Democrats are “fearmongering” about a fake threat to contraception.

“While Democrats play political games, I will continue working on common-sense policy solutions and advocating for Iowa women.” Hinson said in a statement.

“The Democrats are using their power to push an alarmist and false narrative that there is a problem accessing contraception,” said Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, who serves on the Senate Health, Labor, Education and Pensions Committee.

Are Democrats playing politics? Of course they are. Republicans are vulnerable given their unpopular stands on banning abortion and putting the government in control of women’s bodies. Democrats who want to win elections will bring it up often.

But sometimes, politics is about good policy. Democrats are right to be nervous about what the Supreme Court might do after it wiped out 50 years of abortion rights. Justice Sam “Upside Down Flag” Alito, Justice Clarence Thomas, presented by Harlan Crow, and their conservative pals are not known for restraint.

In numerous red states, according to a Washington Post examination of contraception bills, Republicans have blocked measures intended to protect contraception access. In Missouri, Louisiana and Idaho, anti-abortion groups equated some contraceptives as “abortifacients,” argued emergency contraception is the same as abortion drugs and claimed birth control pills induce abortions. All untrue.

“It was Republican men,” Missouri Rep. Tara Peters, a Republican who co-sponsored a bill allowing women to buy a year’s supply of birth control pills, told the Post. “It surprises me that the ones that know nothing about those types of things are the ones that are making the decisions.”

Yeah, a real shocker. We all know how quickly misinformation can become law.

And who can blame Democrats for not listening to Republicans claiming all is well, nothing to see here. They’ve heard it before.

“I think the likelihood of Roe v. Wade being overturned is very minimal. I don’t see that happening,” Ernst said during a September 2020 debate with her Democratic opponent, Theresa Greenfield, on Iowa PBS. At that point, it looked to be a tight race.

“Well, I don’t think anybody is going to overturn Roe v. Wade,” the late Sen. Orrin Hatch said on PBS NewsHour during the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation debate. “It’s a settled opinion that, yes, a lot of conservatives would like to see it overturned, but he’s got bigger fish to fry.

“So I doubt seriously that that’s really a legitimate concern,” Hatch said.

It turned out to be a very legitimate concern.

As I said, it’s going to be tough for Hinson to paper over her record on reproductive rights. When she ran for a seat in the Iowa House, she told a story of how she needed Planned Parenthood services when she couldn’t get an OB/GYN appointment for a year. In 2017, she voted to defund Planned Parenthood.

That led to what is now called the MOMS program, which will grant $2 million to a shortlist of mostly religious-affiliated “crisis pregnancy centers” that aren’t medically licensed and mainly exist to convince women to choose childbirth over abortion. Along with the shortage of OB/GYN care in small hospitals. fewer Iowa women have access to quality family panning resources.

Hinson, as a state lawmaker, voted for the first version of the so-called “Heartbeat Bill” that basically bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, with some exemptions for health emergencies, rape and incest. As a member of the U.S. House, she signed onto the Life at Conception Act, which states that life begins at fertilization and would ban all abortions with no exceptions.

And when all else fails, she accuses Democrats of favoring abortion up until the due date, speaking of fearmongering.

Hinson is heavily favored to win re-election by defeating Democrat Sarah Corkery . But if the Iowa Supreme Court upholds Iowa’s six-week abortion ban this week, suddenly, the issue becomes real in Iowa. Some Republicans who expected easy sledding may find themselves running into a swirling head wind, with no political cover to be found.

(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com