Iowa Right to Life Action Alert April 21, 2005

From Iowa Right to Life Action Alert, as referenced in Norm Pawlewski's Christian Coalition of Iowa Legislative Report - April 18 - April 22, 2005:

IOWA RIGHT TO LIFE COMMITTEE
April 21, 2005

HF 787 is flawed in favor of Planned Parenthood unless legislators add the “Court Amendment" to the bill in the Senate.

HF 787 would gather additional statistics by the state of the number of judicial waivers and parents notified before a minor's abortion. Currently, the abortion provider reports the statistics to the Health Department. That is unreliable.

HF 787 passed out of the House unanimously and is now scheduled for debate in the Senate. Prior to the passage in the House, a deal was struck on the bill that would keep all the court employees and judges and county Attorneys confidential.

Explanation of Court Amendment:

THE COURT AMENDMENT—THIS AMENDMENT ADDRESSES “WHO” REPORTS THE NUMBER OF WAIVERS GRANTED TO THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT

Rather than the abortion provider reporting the number of judicial waivers, each court would send in their own information directly to the health department. The reason the Right to Life is requesting this amendment is because the abortion providers have proven to be unreliable.

Frankly, we trust that the courts will give an accurate number of waivers approved or denied to the Health Department.

Without adding the new amendment for the court to report directly to the Health Department the bill is flawed and in favor of Planned Parenthood. It would be another bad law that permits more confidentiality without accountability.

Bill CONFIDENTIALITY---The "Court Amendment" would not interfere with the provision to protect the identity of all the members of the court.

Any Employee or officer of the court

Health Care provider

Furthermore, the law and the bill require that these statistics will be released in aggregate form, that is statewide. In other words, the report wouldn’t reveal the names, locations or the positions of any person or court involved in granting a waiver. Statistics would only include the number of statewide judicial waivers granted.

ANOTHER REASON WE DON'T TRUST THE ABORTION PROVIDER--

THE ABORTION PROVIDER IS NOT SENDING IN THEIR MONTHLY ABORTIONS STATISTICS AS REQUIRED BY THE RULES OF THE DEPARTMENT

The 2003 abortion statistics were not compiled until April of 2005. Even after being late, the Health Department was forced to pull the newly completed statistic off their website to readjust the statistics because an abortion provider finally sent in their “2003” statistics. That is proof of non-compliance.

Kill The Bill if the Court Amendment is not allowed in the bill. We would prefer the bill to die rather than permit the probability of fudged statistics.

Tell them that we would rather kill the bill if the Court Amendment is not added.