Family Leader supporters urge Iowa funding cuts for abortion providers

Supporters of the religious conservative Family Leader held a rally and lobbying day Tuesday at the Statehouse to encourage lawmakers to cut money from the state budget that could go to abortion providers.

“They work for you, you do not work for them,” said Danny Carroll, a former state lawmaker who now lobbies on social and religious causes, told a gathering of more than 100 in the Capitol rotunda. “You have to remind them of that.”

The group, which has hosted an annual Statehouse lobbying day since the 2009 Varnum v. Brien decision that legalized same-sex marriage in Iowa, asked its supporters to buttonhole lawmakers on an amendment that would forbid state tax money from going to abortion providers under any circumstance.

“Contact your legislator or a legislator and let them know that while they may not be able to overturn Roe v. Wade and they may not be able to protect human life from the moment of conception today or this year, they can at least keep your tax money from going to organizations who do provide abortions,” Carroll said.

Abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood receive money though the federal Medicaid program, which passes through the state.

The Health and Human Services bill approved by the Senate, but awaiting action in the House, contains $1.9 million for pregnancy prevention grants, which includes birth control services.

Planned Parenthood could apply for those grants, but there's no guarantee it would get the money, said Rep. Linda Miller, R-Bettendorf, who sits on the Health and Human Services Appropriations committee.

Family Leader CEO Bob Vander Plaats encouraged the group to send “good men and women who honor and fear God” to the Statehouse.

Personhood USA National Field Director Greg Baker was the keynote speaker. His group works at the state and federal level to get laws passed defining human life from the time of conception to be defined as a person.

He said the unborn are being denied personhood, just as African-Americans were during times of slavery, Native Americans were during the time of Manifest Destiny and Jews were during the Holocaust.

He introduced Sen. Dennis Guth, R-Klemme, who plans to introduce a resolution calling for a Constitutional amendment in that chamber that will define personhood.

“Quite simply, every person at every stage of human life is recognized as a person,” Baker said.