Des Moines, Iowa — A Senate committee has approved a bill that would send a million dollars state funding to a private organization operating a crisis pregnancy center.
Senator Mark Costello of Imogene and the other Republicans on the Appropriations Committee voted for the bill.
Senator Ken Rozenboom, a Republican from Oskaloosa, says he’s the proud father of a son who was given up for adoption by a 16-year-old who got support from this kind of an organization in Kansas City.
The bill says the goal is to assist pregnant women to choose childbirth rather than abortion.
Democrats on the committee voted against the proposal. Senator Janet Petersen, a Democrat from Des Moines, says the state should spend more money to keep labor and delivery departments in hospitals open rather than fund crisis pregnancy centers.
A spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Iowa says Crisis Pregnancy Centers prey on vulnerable women and have been known to shame and scare women planning to seek an abortion. The second half of the bill — which has bipartisan support — would require the state’s Medicaid program to cover check-ups and other so-called “post-partum” care for up to a year after a woman has given birth.
