However, we cannot ignore what the individual states are up to at a time of high drama in the federal

government. The Iowa 2017 legislative docket looks like a mixed bag. Including bills about “Stand Your Ground” laws (remember the legislation used to justify the murder of Trayvon Martin?) and various bills looking to restrict voting rights, there is legislation being introduced all across the board in terms of topics and political stances.

Here are some of the bills being introduced related to reproductive justice:

Senate File 11: Maternal Health Care for Low-Income Women

This legislation aims to establish a way for low-income women who use a Medicaid family-planning program for their pre-natal care to receive continued, comprehensive coverage after they give birth.

Senate File 2: Defunding Planned Parenthood/State-Only Family Planning Program

Connected to the tirade about defunding Planned Parenthood, this bill aims to take Planned Parenthood clinics out of the Medicaid-approved health care provider networks. This means that people with Medicaid would not be able to get their care from Planned Parenthood covered. This would be a substantial blow to our local Planned Parenthood’s security, because it could mean that they lose a large group of their patients.

Senate File 53: Abortion Prohibitions

This bill prevents anyone from having a legal, safe abortion after 20 weeks, unless the “unborn baby’s life” is in danger. You read that right: not in case the woman’s life is in danger. No, that would be too humane. This bill protects the fetus and not the woman/ fetal container.

Senate File 67: Oral Hormonal Contraceptives

This bill would let pharmacists prescribe and then sell women hormonal birth control pills regardless of whether or not they have a prescription from a doctor.

Senate File 27: Abortion Funding Restrictions

This bill prohibits people from using federal health care reform money (like Obamacare subsidies) to pay for an abortion in Iowa. It also prohibits using any federal health care reform money to pay for insurance plans that may cover abortion, regardless of whether or not someone actually uses that plan to pay for an abortion.

Senate File 52: Fetal Body Parts

“A person shall not knowingly acquire, provide, receive, otherwise transfer, or use a fetal body part in this state, regardless of whether the acquisition, provision, receipt, transfer, or use is for valuable consideration”. This bill was introduced by Brad Zaun. Brad, you do know those videos about Planned Parenthood and “selling fetuses” was completely fake right???? No? You’re still thinkin’ ’bout it? How did you even get elected???

So what should you do with all this information? 

Here is a way to find your local representative’s contact information. If you care about women’s bodily autonomy you should let your representative know what you think about these bills!

Genuine Justice is a column about reproductive justice focusing on current events, historical perspectives and racism in women’s healthcare.

The post Genuine Justice: New Bills About Reproductive Justice in Iowa appeared first on KRUI Radio.

This healthcare provider has a long, politically-charged history. The first clinic, focused on administering birth control, was founded by Margaret Sanger, Ethel Byrne and Fania Mindel in Brooklyn. Sanger was jailed 30 days after opening the clinic for violating the Comstock law. This

federal law was passed to suppress the “trade in, and circulation of, obscene literature and articles of immoral use”, and criminalized sending information related to erotica, contraceptives, abortifacients, sex toys, letters alluding to any sexual content or information. This law made communication about advances in reproductive healthcare essentially illegal.

Although Sanger is infamous for participating in racist eugenicist politics (PP’s fave is definitely problematic), the lasting legacy of Planned Parenthood has been about empowering women to make their own decisions about reproductive healthcare. This makes the organization a perfect target for the Trump administration.

However, what kind of policy maneuvers will the Republicans have to make to actually “defund” Planned Parenthood? It turns out that the majority of the money that the organization gets from the federal government is from Medicaid reimbursements.

According to Planned Parenthood officials, “Just like other kinds of health insurance, Medicaid reimburses Planned Parenthood’s doctors and nurses for the preventive medical services they provide, including life-saving cancer screenings, HIV testing, and Portia contraceptive and birth control options.” They further explain that the federal government doesn’t provide direct, open funding in the form of a blank-check style grant.

In this way, the incoming administration would have to go after Medicaid funding and programs like Title X, a federal program that provides funding to reproductive healthcare programs that include, but are not limited to, Planned Parenthood clinics. There is no legislation that gives money to Planned Parenthood that Republicans can repeal.

This means that the Republicans can’t just vote to shut down the PP clinics. Instead, they will have to play the long game and dismantle the healthcare system itself to really achieve their goal of disabling Planned Parenthood. It’s not that this is impossible — a lot of change (and damage) can happen during a united Republican government. But this change will not happen immediately or easily.

The conversation about Planned Parenthood “losing funding” is fundamentally about healthcare policy. Obamacare brought some necessary changes to the American system by incorporating guaranteed issue of basic, primary care into all insurance plans and creating the individual mandate that all people must be paying into the new system.

However, many experts argue that the biggest problem with American healthcare is the sheer complexity of the system. Most other developed nations have simpler, streamlined systems where every person has access to the same care, while in the United States there are many different systems for different classes of people. Not only does this

highlight the inequalities between social groups in America, it also contributes to the administrative nightmare that is American healthcare.

For more information about comparative healthcare policy, check out T.R. Reid’s The Healing Of America.

Genuine Justice is a column about reproductive justice focusing on current events, historical perspectives and systematic racism in women’s healthcare.

The post Genuine Justice: Defunding Planned Parenthood appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Betsy and Mike spoke with the president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund Cecile Richards in a 2-part on-air phone interview about the interest of Planned Parenthood in the November presidential election. Cecile weighs in on the issues greatly affecting women and discusses science, fact and belief on the basis of conception.

Planned Parenthood part 1

Planned Parenthood part 2

The post Cecile Richards talks Planned Parenthood interest in the 2012 presidential election appeared first on KRUI Radio.