Abortion amendment is an attack on Iowans’ health care

Iowa has been my home for 24 years. The health care that I received here inspired me to pursue a career as a physician. I’m proud to receive an education at the first medical school to admit both men and women on an equal basis. Underneath this pride, I struggle with the Iowa that I love and the Iowa that is constantly trying to take away my rights as a woman. Year after year new legislation is introduced that pulls our state into the past. This year, that legislation is a constitutional amendment that threatens to permanently strip Iowans of their right to a safe abortion.

The circumstances surrounding abortion deserve to be met with compassion and understanding by the patient’s health care provider, not by judgment and red tape. Politicians who don’t understand these circumstances or the importance of trust between patients and their physicians exploit this issue every day. Abortion has and always will be health care, something all Iowans have a right to. This proposed amendment puts women in danger by preventing them from having safe access to a basic medical procedure.

A recent Iowa Poll showed that less than one-third of Iowans support this amendment. So why do our leaders continue to push for something that an overwhelming majority of people do not want? As a future health care provider who was raised and educated in Iowa, I can’t sit by while those elected to serve the public threaten to take away our rights.

Victoria Cunningham

Coralville