Iowa House Approves Bill Allowing Women to See Ultrasound of Their Baby Before an Abortion

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Mar 12, 2015   |   6:20PM   |   Des Moines, IA

When women considering an abortion see an ultrasound of their unborn baby, they choose life and opt against having an abortion most of the time. Now, the Iowa state House has approved legislation helping women see ultrasounds at abortion clinics.

Iowa Right to Life informs LifeNews that HF 573, the ultrasound bill, received a 57-39 vote in favor of the legislation in the Iowa House Thursdays afternoon.

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“Opponents called the bill senseless and demeaning to women.  They also said abortion providers are already doing ultrasounds”, stated Jenifer Bowen, Executive Director, of Iowa Right to Life. “We believe the only way this bill is demeaning to women is if the staff there are unable to provide tactful care.  This bill prevents the worst actors from performing substandard care for women, this bill acknowledges that research shows that ultrasounds save lives, and (like many other examples) codifies a standard of practice that will save the lives of children.”

Bowen’s statement continued:

Thank you to Rep. Walt Rogers for sponsoring the bill and to Rep. Joel Fry for an amazing job floor managing the bill.   We thank House leadership for scheduling debate today.

To Representatives Pettengill, Salmon, Gustafson, Baxter, Holt and others, your comments were very encouraging and we thank you for standing up for life on the House floor.

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A special thank you to our lobbyist, Norm Pawlewski, for being the driving force behind getting this bill considered this session.  We appreciate his tireless work on this.

We also thank each of you that contacted your House Representative.  Your willingness to send a large number of emails is the primary reason we were able to get this bill moving.

We will keep you posted as this bill moves to the Iowa Senate.