House-passed abortion bill stalls in Iowa Senate

DES MOINES - The leader of a Senate panel that has been assigned a bill that bans most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy said Friday he doubts there will be time to consider the measure this legislative session.

Sen. Tom Courtney, D-Burlington, chairman of the Senate Government Oversight Committee, said the subject matter of House File 657 - which passed the House on a 60-39 vote on March 31 - is too important to be rushed through the Senate in what likely will be the last two weeks of the 2011 session. He said he would prefer to wait and give it due consideration next year.

“We've got a week and a half or two weeks left in the session. This sounds like pretty important legislation. I seriously doubt if it will get worked on this year,” Courtney said.

“I just don't think there's time to do it,” he added.

However, Sen. David Johnson, R-Ocheyedan, who introduced similar legislation in the Senate last January, said senators have had more than three months to take up his version but it was never given consideration. “For Sen. Courtney to say there's not enough time, with all due respect, is disingenuous,” he said.

Johnson said he is having his bill drafted in amendment form and he will seek to attach it to the fiscal 2012 health and human services budget bill, the fiscal 2012 standing appropriations measure or any other legislation that seems appropriate.

Proponents of the legislation say it was aimed at stopping Nebraska Dr. LeRoy Carhart from opening a clinic in Council Bluffs, where he would support late-term abortions. Nebraska passed legislation last year making the practice illegal in that state.

Gov. Terry Branstad said Friday he knows there is a lot of interest in addressing that issue this session and he was surprised Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, was not applying pressure to make sure the measure reached his desk before lawmakers finalized their work.

“I think Sen. Gronstal has indicated that he doesn't intend to stand in the way of that being addressed,” the governor said. “I'd be very surprised with the threat of this abortion doctor moving from Omaha to Council Bluffs that Sen. Gronstal wouldn't want to see that addressed before the session adjourns.”

Asked if it was an issue he could address via executive order, Branstad said: “I don't think so because that's really a legislative issue.”