State of play on Iowa's abortion law, Family Leadership Summit, and more

July 17 "Capitol Week" is online

Jul 19, 2023

Attorneys at the July 14 hearing on the request to block enforcement of Iowa’s abortion ban. Peter Im (center) argued on behalf of Planned Parenthood and the other plaintiffs; Daniel Johnston (second from left) argued for the state. (photo by Laura Belin)

Hello all! Sorry for the delay in this week’s recap. After Dennis Hart and I did our show Monday night, I was determined to finish a big piece I’d been working on: Governor turns up pressure on Iowa Supreme Court over abortion ban. I finished that post on Tuesday morning but was tied up with several other obligations for much of the day.

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This Saturday, Bob Leonard and I are going to speak at an Iowa Farmers Union event in Elkhart. I’m happy to come talk to groups around the state (e.g. local Democratic, progressive, or women’s organizations), either in person or over Zoom. I don’t charge a speaking fee for grassroots or nonprofit organizations. Some groups reimburse me for mileage, but that’s not required. (Depending on the timing, I may schedule a fundraiser for my website in the area on the same day as one of these other events.)

Let me know if you need a panelist or speaker about Iowa politics for some occasion.

On to the latest “Capitol Week.” Dennis and I haven’t had a slow week all year, and we had a lot of ground to cover again on Monday.

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Rundown from our July 17 program:

Obviously, the big news was Polk County District Court Judge Joseph Seidlin’s order (issued Monday afternoon) temporarily blocking enforcement of House File 732, the new abortion ban. You can read the order here, but I described the main points;
Seidlin found that the law can’t survive scrutiny under the “undue burden” standard, which balances the state’s interest in preventing abortion with a pregnant individual’s liberty interest and bodily autonomy. I explained why the lower court used the “undue burden” standard, and why the Iowa Supreme Court may adopt a different standard of review later;
Seidlin’s order allows the Iowa Board of Medicine to proceed with drafting administrative rules to implement the abortion ban, even though the state won’t be enforcing the ban. I explained why the rules are important, especially when it comes to defining exceptions that allow abortion in cases of medical emergency or non-survivable fetal anomalies;
There’s a lot of confusion about the legal status of abortion in Iowa now, so to be clear: Iowa is back to the status quo before last week’s special legislative session. That means abortion is legal up to about 20 weeks, with a mandatory ultrasound and 24-hour waiting period (adopted years ago);
I explained the possible next steps in the lawsuit challenging the abortion law; here’s the initial court filing from Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, the Emma Goldman Clinic, and the ACLU of Iowa;
The plaintiffs are bringing three claims under the Iowa Constitution: they say the abortion ban violates due process, “inalienable rights,” and equal protection in two ways (by singling out abortion from other medical procedures and by discriminating against women);
The new law is nearly identical to the abortion ban Governor Reynolds unsuccessfully sought to reinstate. But one small change made the bill go into effect immediately upon the governor’s signature. I speculated a bit on why Republican lawmakers made that change;
The governor’s statement on the injunction complained that life was protected for just a few days, but she delayed signing the law in order to participate in the spectacle at the Family Leadership Summit;
We talked about prospects for Republicans to move ahead with a proposed constitutional amendment on abortion (I don’t think they will roll the dice on putting it to a popular vote);
On to Iowa caucus news: over the weekend I caught up with all the presidential candidate appearances at the Family Leadership Summit on Friday. I summarized a few highlights from Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy;
I explained why Tucker Carlson did a terrible job on the interviews;
Pence wasn’t well-received at the summit, in part because Tucker Carlson seemed determined to wrong-foot him;
Donald Trump didn’t show up, but he sent a couple of surrogates;
Nikki Haley, Tim Scott, and Asa Hutchinson also appeared at the summit. Tucker was friendly toward Scott, mostly friendly toward Haley, and hostile toward Hutchinson;
A mysterious new group sent out a second sleazy mailer pretending to praise Trump as a “trailblazer for trans rights”; the piece is clearly designed to undermine support for Trump among conservatives;
I described some of the recent anti-Trump mailings by the Koch-funded AFP Action (you can see pictures at the end of this post);
New tv ads will highlight Trump’s criticism of Reynolds last week in a Truth Social post;
State Senator Jeff Reichman retracted his endorsement of Trump and switched to DeSantis; I’ve tried to reach State Representative Shannon Lundgren to see whether she is rethinking her own support for the former president;
An upcoming Iowa GOP fundraiser will feature almost all the candidates, and should be the first event where DeSantis and Trump will both appear in person;
Reynolds announced that she’s invited all the GOP presidential contenders to sit down with her for one-on-one interviews during the Iowa State Fair. I see this as a power move designed to sideline the Des Moines Register's Political Soapbox, which most Iowa GOP candidates shunned in 2022;
All four Republicans who represent Iowa in the U.S. House are building big war chests and have more than $1 million cash on hand. I didn’t want to get too specific about the numbers during the show, but I did review all of the FEC filings. The House members all received a lot of their campaign cash from PACs; in most cases less than half the money came from individual donors;
To my knowledge, there are no declared Democratic candidates in Iowa’s first, second, or third Congressional districts. Ryan Melton has said he will run again in the fourth district, but he may have competition in the primary: Dr. Jay Brown, an allergist in Ames, told me he is leaning toward running;
Several people are thinking about challenging Zach Nunn in Iowa’s third Congressional district, which is the most competitive of the four House seats. The name that comes up most often in my conversations is Theresa Greenfield, who was the Democratic challenger against Senator Joni Ernst in 2020. She’s working for the USDA now.