Shortly before we celebrate America’s 250th birthday this summer, we will mark another great milestone in the history of our country: the reversal of Roe v. Wade after half a century of court-mandated inequality for unborn children that flew in the face of all our founding ideals. Countless Americans over decades, many Iowans included, used democratic means to right a major wrong. Our ability to do that sets us apart from repressive regimes around the world.
Large-scale social change still doesn’t come easy, and that was only the beginning. Four years out, it’s clear there is still a lot of work ahead to protect life in the law and build a culture of life.
It was only two years ago that Iowa’s heartbeat protections took full effect after a final decision of the state supreme court. That law demonstrably saves lives. We have been blessed by the leadership of Gov. Kim Reynolds, and by her tireless advocacy she leaves our state a much better place for the unborn and for families. The tough job of filling her shoes begins.
With hard-fought victories like these achieved in Iowa, we could easily forget that the battle for life in Iowa and America at large is not won. Twenty states have laws protecting unborn children at some point from conception to 12 weeks. Others have few or no protections; at least nine states and Washington, D.C. allow late-term abortion without any gestational age limits at all.
Estimates say about 1.1 million abortions occur nationwide each year. That’s not only a devastating loss of life, it’s a lot of mothers not supported as they should be. People are shocked to learn abortions have gone up, not down. The main reason for this is a federal policy that ignores a law passed by Congress and allows abortion drugs by mail without any in-person medical safeguards. Out-of-state activists break laws with impunity, leading to poisonings and other harms to babies and mothers.
Once again, Iowa plays a key role in addressing this crisis.
It’s a point of pride that we were a free state from the beginning. Iowans helped our brothers and sisters gain their freedom via the Underground Railroad, at great personal risk. More than 76,000 Iowans fought and sacrificed for that cause and to save the United States of America, with its promise of unalienable rights for all.
In 1868, we ratified the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, providing crucial support for its full adoption as the law of the land. While that amendment was passed primarily to secure the rights of former slaves, it famously declares that no state shall “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws,” and it empowers Congress to enact “appropriate legislation” to enforce it.
Just as the Republican Party opposed slavery, our constant position for more than 40 years has been that the 14th Amendment demands protecting life in the womb as well as out. What “appropriate legislation” looks like, exactly, will be the subject of debate. Human life begins at conception, that’s a scientific fact. And I believe we should protect ALL life. But even if we can’t get there, most Americans agree we should draw a line somewhere. Let’s have that discussion in good faith and make a way forward. We know for sure, though, that we don’t want to be in the company of China and Vietnam on basic human rights.
On the other side of the aisle, the Democratic Party has its extreme solution: Abortion any time for any reason, throughout pregnancy, with no limits in every state in the country and no possibility of opting out. Their signature bill in Congress, sponsored by Democrats across the board and held back only by the 60-vote threshold they’ve promised to nuke, spells it out. They even took the “women” out of women’s health, referring to a “person” and “individual” of any age or gender instead.
Pro-life Americans agree any national limit can’t—and won’t—override strong state-level protections like Iowa’s. But our nation also can’t continue as an inconsistent patchwork, half one way, half another, so you may have no right to live at all depending on your state. That didn’t work in Abraham Lincoln’s time and it won’t work for us today.
The number one rule of elections is: you can’t win without your base. Any national candidate who wants to come to Iowa and earn our votes must realize it’s not enough to say you’re pro-life anymore. We’re looking for true advocates who won’t back down, won’t let the radical Left set the terms, and will make the case for 14th Amendment protections for the unborn and compassionate help for women. That’s how we safeguard the most precious right for the next 250 years and beyond.
