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In a continued crusade against the rights of transgender Iowans, a bill to discourage education about gender identity was heard in an education subcommittee yesterday. Senate File 167 states that curriculum for kindergarteners can’t include any instruction relating to gender identity. For grades one through six, parents or guardians have to give their written consent […]
Iowa Republicans moved ahead with the first of many bills banning trans and nonbinary Iowans from the restroom that matches their gender identity in an education subcommittee yesterday. Senate File 224 prohibits people from entering “single and multiple occupancy toilet facilities in elementary and secondary schools that do not correspond with the person’s biological gender,” […]
On a party line vote yesterday, the Senate State Government Committee approved an amendment to Iowa’s constitution that would ban abortion. The amendment was approved along party lines with a 10-5 vote. Earlier this year, it passed out of subcommittee along party lines, too. “The Iowa Constitution has been updated a number of times in […]
Governor Kim Reynolds did not consult with the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) before ending the state’s limited mask mandate and gathering requirements, according to a number of legislators who participated in a phone call with IDPH director Kelly Garcia. Reynolds has faced an outpouring of criticism in response to her decision. Health officials, […]
A duo of discrimination has dominated the Iowa legislature this year. Between the two of them, Representatives Sandy Salmon and Jeff Shipley are responsible for ten of the thirteen discriminatory anti-LGBTQ bills tracked by One Iowa Action. And they are listed as sponsors for all but three of the bills. All thirteen of the newly […]
While public schools are reeling from COVID-imposed complications, another bill from the legislature proposes taking away resources public schools already lack, and could cause discrimination based on race, class and disability. During the debate about Senate File 159 last week, Senate Democrats argued in favor of teachers and their administrators while Republicans favored parents’ choices. […]
With a pandemic far from under control, Iowans are unsurprisingly concerned about the newest legislation signed into law by Gov. Kim Reynolds last week, that requires all school districts, public and private, have a model for 100 percent in-person learning and provide that option to parents. The debate was divided between Democrats speaking for teachers […]
In 2018, the Iowa Supreme Court struck down a ban on abortion and asserted a fundamental, constitutional right to abortion in Iowa. In response, Iowa Republicans have since focused on changing the constitution to remove that right. This will make space for future restrictions on reproductive health care to withstand court challenges. The amendment proposed […]
In response to the current push to add an amendment to Iowa’s constitution explicitly stating that the constitution doesn’t support or grant a right to abortion, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Iowa recently launched the “we won’t go back” campaign. The campaign is meant to fight back against what Planned Parenthood says would “pave the way […]
As President Joe Biden implements new policies to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, the Reynolds administration has Iowa’s status in terms of testing stuck among the lowest in the country. According to data compiled by the Washington Post, Iowa reported 578 tests in the last seven days, per 100,000 residents. That number puts Iowa above Puerto […]