After 6-week ban gets OK, Family Leader VP says Iowa should ban abortion after conception

Iowa should move to define life as beginning at conception, the vice president of a conservative Iowa Christian organization told the group's conference Friday, fully banning abortion in a state where it will soon be illegal to have the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy.

Chuck Hurley, vice president and chief counsel of The Family Leader, praised Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds and Iowa's Republican-controlled Legislature for restricting abortion, but he said it's not enough.

"While we’ve made great strides in protecting the most innocent among us, we aren’t done," Hurley said in Des Moines. "Fourteen states now protect babies from the moment of conception, and Iowa should be the 15th."

Hurley made his comments Friday at The Family Leader's annual summit at the Community Choice Credit Union Convention Center in Des Moines, speaking to an audience that organizers estimated at about 1,000 people.

Reynolds took the stage later Friday afternoon to discuss education policies with former U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos but didn't discuss abortion.

More: With Iowa's 6-week abortion ban soon in effect, will Republicans go even further?

Last year, Reynolds used the event as the backdrop as she signed a restrictive law banning nearly all abortions after about the sixth week of pregnancy.

She signed the "fetal heartbeat" law in front of a crowd of about 2,000 evangelicals, on the same stage where several Republican presidential candidates used their speeches later in the day to praise her for restricting abortion.

The law has been held up in court since its signing last year, but a 4-3 Iowa Supreme Court ruling in late June paved the way for it to go into effect later this month.

Hurley said "bad judges, for over 51 years, have allowed the killing of these children here in Iowa."

He praised Iowa Supreme Court justices Matthew McDermott, Dana Oxley, David May and Christopher McDonald, who joined the majority decision allowing the six-week ban to take effect.

"As of two weeks ago today, four good judges on our Iowa Supreme Court finally allowed that law to go into effect," he said. "And that 4-3 victory was a major, major answer to prayer."

Hurley said the court's ruling allows lawmakers and the governor "to do their job constitutionally of protecting innocent human beings from murder."

"Praise God for judges McDonald, Oxley, McDermott and May for being faithful to their constitutional role," he said. "And praise Gov. Reynolds for appointing all four of them."

More: 6-week abortion ban can take effect, Iowa Supreme Court rules, ending injunction

Some Iowa Republicans have tried in the past to define life as beginning at fertilization, but they've been unsuccessful.

Twenty House Republicans introduced a bill last year that would have banned all abortions and defined life as beginning at fertilization. The bill did not advance.

Iowa Democrats have raised the alarm about the possibility of a total abortion ban, saying it also will put birth control and fertility treatments like in vitro fertilization at risk.

A separate bill that passed the Iowa House this year would have raised penalties for ending someone's pregnancy without their consent and defined "unborn person" as beginning at fertilization.

More: With Iowa's 6-week abortion ban soon in effect, will Republicans go even further?

House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, D-Windsor Heights, called it a "personhood bill" and said Republicans are "going to come after birth control and they're going to come after IVF."

"The personhood bill from last session, they voted for it," Konfrst said of the bill. "And it defined life as beginning at conception, which puts IVF at risk by definition. And there were no protections in there for IVF. No exceptions."

Democrats' fears about IVF have been heightened after a state Supreme Court ruling in Alabama found that embryos frozen as part of the IVF process were legally protected as children, prompting clinics to halt services before lawmakers passed legislation protecting IVF clinics and doctors from prosecution.

Speaker says GOP national platform on abortion will 'sell out the unborn'

This year's proposed national Republican Party platform does not include language about banning abortion and does not mention pursuing personhood for embryos or fetuses.

That's a change from past platforms, which often included language endorsing a federal ban on abortion after a specific number of weeks.

Josiah Oleson, the Family Leader's director of elections, criticized the platform's approach to abortion.

"Up the road from here next week, the Republican Party is largely going to sell out the unborn in their party platform," Oleson told the crowd. "In other words, the party of Abraham Lincoln is planning to leave it to the states to decide whether or not an unborn baby is actually a human or whether or not they are just property that can be disposed of at will."

Oleson said "it's always going to be a losing battle" if politicians are acting "based on a fear of man rather than God."

"As Christian organizations, if we continue supporting politicians who act in this way, we’re going to continue to have politicians who promise that they will govern with a Christian worldview but deliver only Sodom and Gomorrah," he said.

The platform says, "Republicans will protect and defend a vote of the people, from within the states, on the issue of life."

"We proudly stand for families and life," the platform states. "We believe that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees that no person can be denied life or liberty without due process, and that the states are, therefore, free to pass laws protecting those rights."

The GOP platform gives Republicans credit for ending Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that protected the right to abortion nationwide. But it forgoes mention of a ban on abortion at a specific number of weeks, instead saying only that the party "will oppose late term abortion."

"After 51 years, because of us, that power has been given to the states and to a vote of the people," it goes on. "We will oppose late term abortion, while supporting mothers and policies that advance prenatal care, access to birth control and IVF (fertility treatments."

Trump has taken credit on the campaign trail for appointing three Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe, but he has said states should be the ones to decide on new abortion restrictions, not the federal government.

Democrats have accused Trump and Republicans of wanting to ban abortion nationwide, and of threatening access to birth control and IVF.

A majority of Iowans believe abortion should be legal

Polling since Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 has consistently found large majorities of Iowans say abortion should be legal.

A Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll from March 2023 found 61% of Iowans said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 35% said it should be illegal in all or most cases.

Two other Iowa Polls taken in July and October of 2022 found at least 60% of Iowans believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on Twitter at @sgrubermiller .

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: After 6-week ban gets OK, Family Leader VP says Iowa should ban abortion after conception