Bill to ban late-term abortions may not have enough votes

A bill banning most abortions after the 20

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week of pregnancy will move to the full House Human Resources Committee, but it's not clear there are enough votes to send it on the full House.

“I don't think we have an agreement on that,” Human Resources Committee Chairwoman Linda Miller, R-Bettendorf said Feb. 7. “We don't have the votes to get it out of committee.”

Miller doesn't plan to bring the bill up unless or until there are the votes to pass it out of the 21-member Human Resources Committee. Although Republicans have a majority on the committee, GOP Reps. Kim Pearson of Pleasant Hill and Glen Massie of Des Moines say they won't support the measure that is patterned after a Nebraska law. They both sat in on Monday's subcommittee meeting.

Later, Pearson said she's hasn't made up her mind whether to support the bill.

“I'll see what they do to it,” she said, adding, “but as it is now, no.”

Pro-life groups – Iowans for Life, the Iowa Catholic Conference, Iowa Right to Life and Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition - have signed on to the bill that uses fetal pain and viability as the bases for banning abortion. Under the U.S. Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision, abortions are generally legal throughout the entire pregnancy.

Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Rich Anderson, R-Clarinda, offered changes to clarify several points of the bill and address concerns of affected parties.

Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell, D-Ames, said the changes Anderson proposed were an attempt to address her concerns, but didn't go far enough to recognize the health and safety concerns of women and families and respect their rights to make their own decisions.

HF 5 addresses a “very narrow slice” of the abortion issue, Anderson said. It doesn't ban abortion before the 20

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week or ban abortion in cases where the mother's life is at risk. Citing the positions of Democratic Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, Anderson said he's attempting to make abortion rarer.

Not rare enough, according to Massie and Pearson. They want to ban all abortions.

That's the goal of pro-life groups, too, said Norman Pawlewski, who represents Iowa Right to Life and Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition. However, those groups are concerned about not just the six abortions performed in Iowa after the 20

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week of pregnancy in 2009, but the hundreds of abortions that will be performed if the law is not enacted.

Pro-life groups are trying to block a Nebraska doctor, LeRoy Carhart from opening a Council Bluffs clinic where late-term abortions would be performed.

“There's overwhelming support for this in Council Bluffs because of Dr. Carhart,” Brandenburg said.