WATCH THE PRESS CONFERENCE HERE.
From defunding critical health care providers like Planned Parenthood, to stripping hardworking Iowa women of care though the privatized Medicaid disaster, to passing the most extreme abortion ban in the country, Republicans across the state consistently put ideology and partisanship ahead of the rights and health of Iowa women.
“Governor Reynolds and Senator Whitver treat women like second-class citizens, telling us that they as Republican politicians know what’s best for us – not our doctors, not our families, not our faiths, and not even us as individuals. That’s just ridiculous,” said Iowa Democratic Party Vice Chair Andrea Phillips. “Iowans are going to send a strong message in November: If you take away women’s rights, we will take away your political power.”
“I firmly believe, and I am quite certain that all Iowans would agree with me on this, that every person has the right to make their own medical decisions about their own body. That’s just common sense and that’s our right as Americans – guaranteed by both the United States Constitution and the Iowa Constitution,” said Planned Parenthood State Director Erin Davison-Rippey.
“I’m tired of Republicans like Governor Reynolds and Jack Whitver telling Iowa women we don’t matter. That our right to safe, legal health care is less important than political grandstanding…as a candidate for the Iowa Senate, I want to say to all of the Iowa women listening right now that you do matter, and that I will fight for you. It matters to me if an expecting mother has to drive hours to receive the prenatal care she needs. It matters to me if a young woman will have access to the critical health care that she needs to be healthy. It matters to me if a woman doesn’t get a say over what happens to her body,” said State Senate Candidate Amber Gustafson.