Iowa faith leaders voice opposition to abortion law set for special legislative session

As the Iowa Legislature gears up for a special session on abortion beginning this week, a variety of faith leaders from across Iowa gathered via Zoom on Sunday for a news conference voicing their support for reproductive freedom and urging lawmakers to reject proposed restrictions on the procedure.

The Rev. Betsey Monnot, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Iowa, said limits on abortion called for by Gov. Kim Reynolds, who has summoned lawmakers back to the Capitol for a special session beginning Tuesday, is based on the beliefs of one arm of Christianity and aren't universally shared by her and other members of the faith.

"In this week's special session of the Legislature, Iowa politicians plan to restrict all Iowans to following the teaching of one particular section of Christianity in the area of reproductive health care," said Monnot, speaking as part of the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa Action Fund, a progressive group made up of Christians, Jews and other faiths as well as atheists and agnostics.

"This is an inappropriate use of our system of government, and it will prevent Christians like myself and those that I lead from exercising our own deeply held religious convictions to respect the dignity of every human being and to love our neighbors," Monnot said.

The Alliance, in a statement released in conjunction with the online news conference, said that "people of faith are not monolithic in their beliefs on abortion. Many people of faith believe in reproductive freedom for Iowa women and all people because of their faith."

In an apparent reference to a 2022 Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll, it said 61% of Iowans "in communities big and small, urban and rural believe abortion should be legal in Iowa."

"As members of that 61% we are united in opposing any attempt to limit or ban the fundamental right to an abortion," said the statement, which invited Iowans who object to abortion restrictions to add their signatures to it online.

"...One religious belief should never be elevated above others or inserted into public policy or our state’s constitution, particularly when that action infringes on the rights of others," the statement said. "Iowa is not a theocracy and our laws must reflect that understanding."

Declaring the anti-abortion movement "the most important human rights cause of our time," Reynolds called the special session after the Iowa Supreme Court last month via a deadlocked 3-3 ruling permanently blocked a long-enjoined 2018 state law effectively banning most abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy.

More: 'Disappointment is an understatement': Kim Reynolds reacts to Iowa Supreme Court abortion decision

Conservatives had hoped the court, appointed entirely by Reynolds, a Republican, and her GOP predecessor in the governor's office, Terry Branstad, would revive the law in the light of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2022 ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, leaving it to the states to regulate abortion. In addition, the Iowa court, also in 2022, reversed its own 2018 finding that the Iowa Constitution guaranteed a fundamental right to abortion.

Currently, abortion remains legal in Iowa until the 20th week of pregnancy. Sally Frank, a member of the Temple B'nai Jeshurun in Des Moines, said in the news conference that, like Monnot, she is concerned about how any new restrictions will impact her faith.

Frank said human life begins at birth, according to Jewish law, and that while the unborn fetus has value, it is less than that of a born human being. For that reason, she said, her faith permits abortions and in some cases requires them to protect the health and life of a pregnant woman ― a position at odds with the belief of conservative Christians that life begins at conception.

A proposal by the leaders of the Legislature's Republican majority would, like the permanently blocked law, prohibit most abortions after six weeks, through it would allow exceptions for abortions necessary to save the life of the mother, for pregnancies that result from rape or incest, and for fetal abnormalities that are "incompatible with life."

But Frank said the exceptions aren't sufficient to address Jewish objections to the restrictions.

"The provisions of the governor's proposal ... to ban abortion at six weeks would outlaw abortion that Jewish law might say are required," Frank said. "The provision of the medical emergency exception that is being offered are way too narrow to fit all the circumstances that Jewish law would either require or permit an abortion."

Noelle Alviz-Gransee is a breaking news reporter at the Des Moines Register. Follow her on Twitter @NoelleHannika or email her at NAlvizGransee@registermedia.com.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa faith leaders object to Kim Reynolds' abortion special session