Hinson, Corkery clash over abortion, IVF, immigration

Two of the three candidates on the ballot in Iowa's 2nd Congressional District sparred over abortion rights, immigration enforcement and more in a televised debate Monday night.

Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson of Marion and Democratic challenger Sarah Corkery of Cedar Falls clashed over limits to abortion and how the federal government should handle maternal health care issues like in vitro fertilization and birth control.

No-party candidate Jody Puffett of Delhi did not meet Iowa PBS' eligibility requirements to participate in the debate, according to a Facebook post on her campaign's page.

The debate, hosted by Iowa PBS at its studios in Johnston, covered a variety of issues including reproductive health care, taxes, gun control and Social Security.

Iowa Press' Kay Henderson, The Gazette's Des Moines Bureau Chief Erin Murphy and the Des Moines Register's chief politics reporter Brianne Pfannenstiel moderated the debate.

Hinson emphasized combating inflation and securing the southern border. Corkery highlighted the need to protect women’s health care rights and criticized Hinson's stance on immigration.

Hinson opposed raising the retirement age for Social Security and advocated for extending the 2017 Trump-era tax cuts to protect small businesses against tax increases. Corkery said she would let the tax cuts lapse and proposed raising the Social Security tax limit to make the system more solvent.

Abortion

One of the major points of discussion was the candidates’ positions on abortion.

Corkery, a first-time candidate and two-time breast cancer survivor, has focused her campaign on women's health care rights and public education.

“Let's be clear, abortion is about power and control over women's health,” she said.

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Corkery, who began the debate by stating that access to abortion care is her top priority if elected, said the decision to terminate a pregnancy should be a conversation “between a person and a doctor,” with no defined cutoff point for when abortions become illegal.

Corkery also spoke about her experience with pregnancy complications when she and her son almost died at 38 weeks of gestation.

She said she does not believe focusing on how many weeks into a pregnancy abortions should become illegal is productive, as it does not reflect the reasons why many women receive late-term abortions.

“This is not a flippant conversation, and that's what it's become when we focus on one metric,” Corkery said. “ … If you say a number of weeks, the next question should be, ‘Is the mother’s life at risk?' Is there a fetal anomaly that makes this incompatible with life? These are scary, terrible things, and so for my opponent to basically say people are having abortions up until birth and after — it’s hurtful to those of us that have almost lost our lives in childbirth.”

Hinson defended her decision to cosponsor the Life at Conception Act, which would establish legal protections for fetuses and embryos at “the moment of fertilization,” and guarantee a “right to life” for every human being.

While the bill — which never made it to the House floor — does not specifically mention abortion, critics say it would undoubtedly restrict the medical procedure as well as in vitro fertilization. The bill does not spell out protections for fertility treatments or exceptions for cases involving rape, incest or to save the life of the mother.

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While she cosponsored the legislation, Hinson said she would vote against that bill as it's currently written because it does not contain exceptions for cases of rape, incest, protecting the life of the mother and fatal fetal anomalies.

“No piece of legislation would get my support without those exceptions,” Hinson said.

“It’s about valuing life. I think the most important thing here is about working with my colleagues to support a culture of life in Washington, D.C.,” Hinson said. “Look, I understand not everybody’s there. We need to have some protections in this country, because life is valuable. I certainly don’t want to support a culture of death like my opponent — that I believe is extreme. … I would always rather err on the side of protecting life and trying to save as many lives as possible, and that is what I will continue to do in Washington (D.C.).”

IVF

Corkery claimed that Hinson does not support IVF or helping women avoid unplanned pregnancies, pointing to the Republican’s support for the “Life at Conception” Act as well as legislation supporting what she said were less effective forms of over-the-counter birth control.

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“Although she says she supports it, we’ve got to watch what she does. It’s really important what people put their name on, and you should agree with it if you put your name on it,” Corkery said.

Asked if the federal government should pay for IVF treatments or force insurance companies to cover the cost, Hinson said, “we need to look at what that cost would be and make sure we’re having a serious conversation about that.”

Hinson noted her efforts through the appropriations process to provide more IVF access for government employees.

“So, I’ve already done work in this space and I look forward to helping to expand and support IVF for women,” she said.

Hinson added she has been focused on passing legislation aimed at reducing Iowa’s maternal health care deserts, expanding birthing centers and access to over-the-counter oral contraceptive drugs, and preventing miscarriages and stillbirths.

“Really, this is about making sure that no matter what your ZIP code is, that you can have that access to care,” Hinson said. “… I’ve worked with Iowans to make sure we are protecting life, and making sure that women have resources and the education they need to know when they need to go see a doctor.”

Immigration

Hinson said Iowa communities are being impacted by illegal border crossings and stated that the federal government’s top priority on border security needs to be to “deport the dangerous illegals in this country” and secure the U.S.-Mexico border by working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement before focusing on reforming the immigration and visa systems.

Corkery argued that Hinson should have supported a bipartisan plan to secure the border and provide more Border Patrol agents, criticizing Republicans for blocking it in the Senate.

“First of all, I want to say there is a problem at the border,” Corkery said. “My opponent has said that the Democrats want to open border, and that's just not true. What we do want to do is go back to the plan that Republicans worked on with Democrats.”

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Hinson supported a 2023 House GOP-led measure to increase border security — a separate measure from the bipartisan deal. It would end the practice of "catch and release," in which Border Patrol agents release migrants into the United States while they await immigration hearings, and impose new limits to asylum eligibility.

Hinson said she has also worked to bolster staffing and resources for U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She said she opposed the Senate deal because it would not mandate a border closure until Border Patrol reached a seven-day average of 5,000 or more border encounters, or if the number exceeded 8,500 in a single day.

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“The right amount of illegal immigration to this country should be zero,” Hinson said. “… Again, we need to focus on policies that actually work to stem this tide of illegal immigration — that's building the wall, enforcing the Remain in Mexico policy, ending catch and release ... and then give our Border Patrol agents the resources that they need.”

Corkery criticized Hinson for supporting what she said were not “pro-life” border policy positions, pointing to Hinson’s support for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott installing miles of razor wire along the banks of the Rio Grande to deter illegal border crossings.

The Democratic challenger said she supports making it more difficult to gain asylum in the United States and giving presidents more authority to close the border.

Tax cuts and Social Security

Hinson said she supports extending Trump-era tax cuts to preserve small business tax relief.

Corkery argued against extending the tax cuts, claiming they disproportionately cut taxes for wealthy individuals.

She proposed raising the maximum amount of earnings subject to Social Security taxes to fix Social Security's projected funding shortfall and to ensure wealthy individuals contribute more to the system.

Hinson said she opposes raising the retirement age and instead suggests forming a bipartisan commission to explore solutions without cutting benefits.

Gun Control

Hinson said she is focused on making sure law enforcement and schools have the tools they need to respond to — and prevent — mass shootings, but “you cannot legislate away hate.”

“No law is going to deter people who have hate in their mind from actually going to a school and perpetrating these terrible crimes. But what we can do is making sure we’re getting the resources to our schools,” Hinson said.

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Corkery said she supports charging parents of mass shooters, and criticized Hinson for voting against the bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which closed gun law loopholes and implemented new gun violence prevention policies. The law also made significant investments in school safety and expanded access to mental health services.

“I think we need to be very careful about this, because I'm not going to demonize legal gun owners, and they continually get demonized in this conversation,” Hinson said. “… I put my kids on the school bus every single day. I want every kid to have a school that's safe and have a good education. And I think that's where we need to focus our efforts, is on making sure that we're looking at the root of the problem, which is mental health.“

Polls, analysis indicate district likely to favor Republican

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Hinson is seeking a third term. The former state lawmaker and former KCRG-TV news anchor flipped a blue seat red in 2020 by campaigning on kitchen-table issues and pledging to be a taxpayer advocate in Congress. Hinson won re-election in 2022 by 8 percentage points against Democratic former state lawmaker Liz Mathis of Hiawatha.

Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District encompasses 22 counties in northeast Iowa, including Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Cedar Falls and Dubuque.

A Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll showed in September more likely Iowa voters preferred a Republican candidate over a Democrat in three of the state’s four congressional districts, including the 2nd District.

The independent, non-partisan Cook Political Report rates Iowa’s 2nd District as a “solid Republican” R+4 district, meaning that in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, voters in the district supported Republican candidates an average of about four points more than the nation did as a whole.

The latest figures from the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office show there are nearly 150,000 active registered Republican voters, more than 127,000 active registered Democrats, nearly 130,000 active no-party voters, and 2,400 active registered Libertarians in the district.

Hinson has a large fundraising advantage over Corkery. National Democrats have not targeted the race in the same way they have in the 1st and 3rd districts, leaving Corkery with little outside support.

Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com