Gabriel's Corner

IOWA FAITH & FREEDOM COALITION LEGISLATIVE REPORT

Norm Pawlewski – LobbyistMay 14, 2011 ELOQUENT NONSENSE AND DELIBERATE DISTORTIONSABOUT THE LATE-TERM ABORTION BAN After 24 Republicans and 2 Democrats forced HF 657 to the calendar by successfully employing a little, almost never utilized “discharge petition,” Sen. Gronstal again showed his disdain for the process by assigning the bill to Sen. Joe Bolkcom. Sen. Bolkcom, recently divorced from Karen Kubby, executive director of Iowa City’s most prominent abortion facility, the Emma Goldman Clinic, is the Iowa Senate’s number one abortion supporter. Sen. Bolkcom immediately declared HF657 as unconstitutional and pledged to offer an alternative bill that would keep LeRoy Carhart from opening his butcher shop in Council Bluffs without infringing on the right of a woman to “choose” the outcome of her pregnancy.

The Republicans in the Senate, recognizing that Bolkcom had no intention of allowing HF657 to be debated, tried twice to bring the bill to the floor by amending it to the Human Services Appropriations bill HF 649. Each time, Sen. Jack Kibbie (D) Senate President, ruled the amendment not germane. Without going into any detail, I can tell you that there were many other amendments on HF 649 that were far less germane than was HF 657. Sen. Kibbie’s decisions were, without question, political.

Whether Sen. Kibbie was following orders from Mike Gronstal or decided on his own to betray his constituents, his church or the unborn children who could die as a result of his decision, only he and his God know.

Early on, even before HF 657 had cleared the House, another pro-life lobbyist and I met with Jack Kibbie. He assured us he was pro-life, did not support the establishing of a late-term abortion facility and would support legislation to keep that from happening. He was, to put it kindly, disingenuous. This professing member of Sacred Heart Catholic Church, the Ayrshire Knights of Columbus, the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and numerous business and agriculture-related organizations quietly apologized for his first decision to rule HF657 not germane, claiming he did so reluctantly. But that only worked once. His second ruling left no doubt his decision was politically motivated. Shame on you Jack Kibbie, honorable Korean War veteran, man of honor, public servant, father to eleven children. You had an opportunity to rise above politics and do the right thing. You failed.

BOLKCOM INTRODUCES SF 534 (WAS SSB 1212) Sen. Joe Bolkcom, as chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, decided that HF 657 was unconstitutional (I didn’t know the Senator was also a Supreme Court Justice) and took it upon himself (with the extensive help of Planned Parenthood) to introduce SSB 1212 (now SF 534).

This proposed legislation would not only not prohibit late-term abortions, it would facilitate them by creating a system for legalizing a “specialized outpatient surgical facility ………in which surgical abortion procedures are performed after the fetus has attained post-fertilization age of twenty weeks or more.” The bill would “require that the ‘facility’ be within ‘close proximity’ (whatever that means) to a hospital licensed pursuant to chapter 135B that provides the appropriate level of perinatal care consistent with 641 IAC 150 for patients of the facility in order to preserve the life or health of a pregnant woman or fetus” (underlining mine).

I know this sounds like mumbo jumbo, because it is. If you read the bill in the context of the Code of Iowa, Chapter 135, sections 61 through 63, you will note that these “abortion surgery centers” have to apply for a “certificate of need,” pay a fee, meet no standards except being within “close proximity” to a hospital that is certified as a neonatal center. Because there are only five of these hospitals located in Davenport, Iowa City, Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, this solves the Council Bluffs, Dr. Carhart problem. Or does it? One section of the bill, Sec. 3, restates Iowa Code Section 135.63 subsection 2, paragraph a, and amends into it these “specialized outpatient surgical facilities.” Essentially, this provision in the code exempts “private offices and private clinics of an individual physician, dentist or other practitioner or group of health care providers.” Because physicians’ offices and clinics are not subject to licensure, inspection or any other regulation, Dr. Carhart or any other physician could perform these abortions in their own clinic without applying for a “certificate of need.”

I won’t go into all the nuances of what can or cannot be done in a private physician’s office or clinic and what restrictions, if any, there are on these practices, but suffice it to say that this bill will not solve the Council Bluffs problem. It does, however, create a new problem for Des Moines, Davenport, Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. They now become fertile ground for a late-term abortion entrepreneur.

In the last full year of his practice, George Tiller of Wichita, Kansas performed 1,138 late-term abortions. At a low-ball price of $4,000 per, he grossed over 4.5 million dollars. Since almost all of the states in the Midwest have now banned late-term (20 to 22 weeks) abortions, how attractive does Iowa become for a no-conscience, greedy entrepreneur to kill babies for profit?

Bolkcom’s bill is badly written and patently unconstitutional on its face. But that really doesn’t matter. It was not written to become a law but a diversion and cover for Gronstal and others who are not serious about protecting any in-the- womb babies, regardless of their gestational age. Three Democrats on the Ways and Means sub-committee and full committee spoke in support of this farce, SF 534 (SSB 1212): Bolkcom of Iowa City, Dotzler of Waterloo and Quirmbach of Ames. Their oratory, laced with sympathy for the women “who really wanted to be mothers but had tragic complications that necessitated the killing of their unborn child,” would have been comical if the issue were not so serious and life-changing.

Four Republicans, Bartz of Grafton, Chelgren of Ottumwa, Smith of Davenport and Feenstra of Hull, questioned Sen. Bolkcom and spoke against his bill. Sen. Feenstra (I wish I had written down what he said) was concise but accurate when he said this bill would not ban one late-term abortion and called it what it is--- a sham, a nothing bill that saves not one life. The bill passed out of the Ways and Means Committee on a party line vote.

It was exceedingly frustrating to sit in that room for four or five hours, with time out for party caucuses, and listen to public servants defend what I know is a Planned Parenthood bill, designed to derail a real attempt to put some limit on the taking of innocent life.

Please understand, I oppose all abortions. I believe life begins at fertilization and every life deserves protection. HF 657 only protects some of those at risk, but it will save some lives. It is the most significant pro-life bill to be considered by the whole Legislature since Roe v Wade. It deserves your support and warrants your efforts. The current version, as passed out of the House, needs no amendments and will withstand a court challenge. Continue to pray for its passage and for those who support the bill and those who oppose it. ……………..

~~In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. ~~1st Peter 1:6,7~~For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.~~1st Peter 2:15

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