Des Moines, Iowa — Democrats in the Iowa Senate were able to kick two members off the Iowa Board of Medicine who had voted in 2013 to ban so called-“telemed” abortions.
Republican Senator Randy Feenstra of Hull expressed his frustration.
Another Republican senator noted that NINE Democratic senators who voted AGAINST reconfirming the Board of Medicine’s chairwoman Wednesday night had SUPPORTED her appointment to the board back in 2014. That was AFTER the board had made its controversial decision about tele-med abortions. The Iowa Supreme Court eventually overturned the board’s decision.
Democrat Senator Janet Petersen of Des Moines says she supports medical care for women, not politics.
The chairwoman of the Board of Medicine who hails from Governor Terry Branstad’s hometown of Lake Mills AND a doctor from Iowa City failed to get enough senate votes to stay on the board. Petersen says their support of the ban on tele-medicine abortions “was all the information she needed” to deny them another term on the board.
Meanwhile, in the Iowa House of Representatives, Republicans pressed forward with their plan to deny state tax dollars to Planned Parenthood. That’s one part of a budget bill that cleared the House Wednesday night.
