Des Moines, Iowa — (RI) — A bill pulled from consideration in the Iowa House drew strong responses from both sides in the abortion debate. Abortion opponents say the bill would have let Iowans sue on behalf of an aborted fetus — just like a man in Alabama is doing.
Kim Robbie, the Life Ministries director for Lutheran Family Service of Iowa, addressed members of an Iowa House subcommittee Wednesday.
Others at Wednesday’s hearing suggested the bill was an attempt to establish the legal concept of “personhood.”
That’s Daniel Zeno of the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa. Representative Mary Wolfe, a Democrat from Clinton who’s an attorney, says the bill would have been a “gigantic legal step” for the state to make.
Chuck Hurley, the legal counsel for The Family Leader, urged legislators to pass the bill.
The bill’s sponsor said it was “not intended to deal with abortion,” but was an attempt to make common legal procedures part of actual state law. A House Committee did not take up the bill Wednesday night. The panel’s chairman said there were too many unanswered questions about the legislation.
