On Tuesday, Iowa Democratic Party Vice Chair Andrea Phillips, State Senate Candidate Amber Gustafson and Planned Parenthood State Director Erin Davison-Rippey will hold a press conference to launch the “Republican Record: Women’s Health Crisis Tour” which will highlight Iowa Republicans’ attacks on women’s health and attempts to insert government in to private health care decisions.

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, Iowa Republicans, led by Governor Reynolds and Jack Whitver, consistently put ideology and partisanship ahead of the rights and health of Iowa women.

Despite the fact that nearly 8 in 10 Iowans support public funding from Planned Parenthood, in 2017, Republicans approved a bill that blocked state fundingfrom going to them and other clinics that provide critical family planning services, including abortions. Because of the cuts, Planned Parenthood lost nearly $2 million in public funding and were forced to close four clinics.

Republicans’ privatized Medicaid disaster has also hurt working mothers harder than most. Fifteen to twenty percent of rural Iowa mothers struggle with postpartum depression, but access to mental health care continues to be limited under Reynolds and Republicans in the Statehouse. Fourteen medical and mental health facilities, that would be crucial women in rural communities receiving health care, have been closed because of Medicaid privatization.

On top of all of this, Reynolds and Republicans continue to defend the most extreme abortion ban in the country that outlaws virtually all safe and necessary abortions.

Iowa Republicans have put their partisan ideology ahead of Iowa women’s right to obtaining safe, legal health care. Iowans deserve representatives who are fighting for them, and Governor Reynolds and Republicans in the Statehouse are not those people.

Members of the press who are interested in attending events should RSVP to Sydney McDevitt at smcdevitt@iowademocrats.org.

REPUBLICAN RECORD: WOMEN’S HEALTH CRISIS TOUR
POLK COUNTY
WHO: Vice Chair Andrea Phillips, State Senate Candidate Amber Gustafson, Planned Parenthood State Executive Director Erin Davison-Rippey
WHAT: Women’s Health Press Conference
WHEN: Tuesday, October 16 10:00 AM
WHERE: Conference Room, Ankeny Public Library, 2006 S Ankeny Blvd, Ankeny, IA 50023
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