Kamala Harris says Iowa ‘on front lines’ in legal challenges to abortion

DES MOINES — Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday said Iowa is “on the front lines” of the fight over abortion access.

Harris joined a roundtable discussion on reproductive rights with Democratic leaders, health care providers and community advocates at Grand View University in Des Moines.

It’s not just lawmakers taking action to strip Americans of abortion rights, Harris said.

“There are attorneys general around the country — including here — who are attempting to tell pharmacies, ‘Do not dispense abortion medication in the state,' ” Harris said.

Republican Brenna Bird, Iowa’s newly elected attorney general, signed onto a letter with 19 other Republican attorneys general warning Walgreens it could face a multistate lawsuit if the pharmacy chain continues to sell abortion medication by mail.

Harris said the letter and threat of lawsuit is an egregious example of government overreach, as abortion medication has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for more than two decades.

The vice president has held 40 events nationwide on abortion access in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

The Iowa event comes as a federal judge in Texas considers a lawsuit arguing the FDA improperly approved mifepristone, a drug used in most abortion medications, and calling for removing or limiting the medication in U.S. markets.

“A group of elected politicians are expecting to use the court of law to implement a political agenda that would undo the veracity and significance of the medical decision by the FDA about a medication,” Harris said. “… And the fundamental issue at play in that court case is our public health system as a whole.”

If the Texas court does overrule the FDA’s determination, the Biden administration will do whatever it can to protect access to health care, Harris said.

But she said this decision could have implications beyond the issue of abortion. The FDA approves medication for conditions ranging from chemotherapy to asthma to insulin. If a judge decides to overturn an FDA approval, Harris said, “imagine where that could lead.”

‘Essential freedom’

Iowa Senate Minority Leader Zach Wahls of Coralville, who moderated the event, said he was grateful that Harris was having this discussion in Iowa.

“While abortion remains safe, legal and accessible in Iowa today, we can see Republican politicians and their activist judges moving swiftly to reverse course and deny this essential freedom and autonomy to pregnant Iowa women and their families,” Wahls said.

Other states with a GOP governor and a majority in state legislatures have passed bans or restrictions on abortion. Iowa Republicans have not moved to further restrict the procedure this legislative session, deciding to wait on an Iowa Supreme Court ruling.

MOMS funding

Gov. Kim Reynolds is asking the justices to reconsider the injunction that halted the “fetal heartbeat” law passed by Republican lawmakers in 2018. The law would ban most abortions — with exemptions for rape, incest and to save the life of the mother — after six weeks of fetal development, before many women know they’re pregnant.

The governor’s health care omnibus bill includes an increase in funding for the More Options for Maternal Support, or MOMS, program from $500,000 to $2 million. Wahls, the Democratic minority leader, criticized giving more money to the nonprofit that promotes alternatives to abortion.

Health care providers and reproductive rights advocates say the centers falsely present themselves as licensed health care providers and have been accused of misdiagnosing issues with a pregnancy that put a woman’s life at risk.

Wahls said Iowans oppose the expansion of the MOMS program.

“That is wrong, and strong majorities of Iowans made clear they oppose this,” Wahls said. “These looming restrictions threaten the health and safety of Iowans, and they would limit our choices and narrow our opportunities. Iowa Republicans are making our state a less welcoming state.”

In addition to her Grand View roundtable, Harris went to see her alma matter Howard University’s NCAA game against the University of Kansas at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

This story first appeared in the Iowa Capital Dispatch.