Writing while angry
An occupational hazard
A friend picked up this notebook for me at RAYGUN a couple of months ago. When I shared a photo on Facebook, many friends responded along the lines of, “Not thick enough!” or “We’re going to need more pages.”
It’s no secret that I strongly oppose most of the Iowa Republican policy agenda, and I’ve worked hard to hold the Reynolds administration accountable. Some of my best investigative reporting has focused on the governor’s lies, abuses of power, or questionable use of public resources.
But in truth, I rarely feel anger while covering the Kim Reynolds news of the day.
A few topics do upset me, though. I had to confront one of them this weekend.
Although I’d known it was coming for six weeks, I still found it distressing to read the state’s brief asking the Polk County District Court to lift the permanent injunction on a 2018 law that would ban almost all Iowa abortions.
Reynolds and the private attorneys representing her in this case (Attorney General Tom Miller declined to be involved) made clear that pregnant Iowans' interests have almost no value in the eyes of the state. All that matters is the government’s goal to protect “unborn life.”
The consequences for Iowans forced to continue pregnancies are irrelevant, even if denying them an abortion ruins their happiness, physical or mental health, livelihood, or educational aspirations.
It took me three days to pull together my latest Bleeding Heartland post about the case. That was partly because I kept changing my mind about the best way to present the material: details about the law at issue, the state’s legal arguments, and their prospects for persuading four Iowa Supreme Court justices.
But I also had to step away at times, because it’s overwhelming to think about how many Iowans will suffer if this law or anything like it goes into effect. Kim Reynolds couldn’t stand the thought of students having to wear masks at school, and loudly supported “Iowans’ right to make health care decisions based on what’s best for themselves and their families,” in the context of COVID-19 vaccinations.
Yet she has zero concern for the liberty interests of those forced to serve as incubators once an embryo has been implanted in their uterus for a few weeks.
When I feel strongly about an issue, I often find it helps me to sleep on a post in progress, or shift gears and work on something less emotional for a while. (In this case, a quick piece on how Iowa Republicans had nothing to say about Donald Trump keeping top secret material at his Mar-a-Lago residence.)
My deep dive on the state’s case for resurrecting the six-week abortion ban was finally ready to go around noon on Sunday.
I’m off now to work on the next edition of my Evening Heartland newsletter, which goes out two or three times a week with links to all articles and commentaries recently published at Bleeding Heartland. Click here to subscribe; it’s free, and I never share or sell my email list.