On Wednesday, June 30, 2021, the Iowa State Supreme Court issued a significant pro-life decision, upholding an Iowa law barring abortion providers like Planned Parenthood from receiving tax dollars to teach sex-ed in schools. The FAMiLY Leader released the following statement supporting the State Supreme Court’s decision:
We are grateful that the Iowa Supreme Court today, by 6-1 vote, rejected every one of Planned Parenthood’s arguments and upheld the rightful authority of the Legislature to direct tax dollars away from organizations that kill unborn children.
The people of Iowa should not be forced to pay abortionists to teach our children. Those who make money by performing abortions have an inherent conflict of interest in teaching our children to prevent pregnancy, which is illustrated by Planned Parenthood’s abysmal performance in federally-funded studies across the nation.
Furthermore, recent polling found that 64% of Iowa voters oppose taxpayer funding for abortion. With this Iowa Supreme Court ruling, Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers are now fully defunded from Iowa tax dollars.
The FAMiLY Leader thanks the governor, the attorney general, and their staff for their hard work in appealing and winning this case, and we are proud of our small part in filing a friend of the court brief explaining why Iowans should not be forced to pay abortion providers to teach their children.
Today’s decision, however, does not minimize the need or urgency for the proposed Protect Life Amendment to the Iowa Constitution. While the Iowa Supreme Court ruled favorably today, we cannot leave the right to life in the hands of a few judges. The dangerous precedent of the 2018 Planned Parenthood v. Reynolds case remains, laying a foundation for future courts to strike down any and every reasonable abortion restriction, even those measures protecting mothers and children from late-term abortion.