Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst defends gay-marriage vote as GOP county groups move to censure her

U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst said Monday she stands by her vote approving the Respect for Marriage Act, even as some Iowa Republican groups move to censure her for it.

"I don't agree with the censure," she told reporters Monday. "But I will say that I stand by my vote, and I hope that more people will actually read the bill and understand we have just improved upon religious liberty protections, not just in Iowa, but across the United States."

Several Iowa Republican county parties have voted in recent weeks to censure or condemn Ernst, who joined 11 other Republicans in voting to pass the legislation. They include those in Des Moines, Guthrie, Ida, Mahaska, Pocahontas, Van Buren and Wright counties, according to reports from the conservative blog the Iowa Standard.

In Des Moines County, which also censured U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, the censure says that same-sex marriage "clearly violates the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God, the source of our rights, and thus state recognition of homosexual unions will lead to numerous tyrannies being imposed on our people."

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, who was just re-elected to another term in November, opposed the legislation in the Senate vote.

Iowa's Republican U.S. Reps. Miller-Meeks and Ashley Hinson joined outgoing Democratic U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne in voting for the legislation in the House. Republican U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra opposed it.

The bill, known as the "Respect for Marriage Act," would guarantee federal recognition of any marriage between two people if the union was valid in the state where they married.

The bill would also require states to accept the legitimacy of a valid marriage performed elsewhere but not require any state to issue a marriage license contrary to its own law.

The bill was drafted after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade earlier this summer. In the ruling, Justice Clarence Thomas expressed interest in reconsidering same-sex among other things.

The bill got a final vote in the U.S. House of Representatives last week and now awaits President Joe Biden's signature.

The Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in 2015 and interracial marriage in 1967. Iowa was the third state in the nation to legalize same-sex marriage with a unanimous 2009 Iowa Supreme Court decision in the case of Varnum v. Brien.

Ernst emphasized to reporters Monday that she believes the bill protects religious freedom while maintaining the status quo in Iowa.

She noted that the bill does not require religious institutions to recognize same-sex marriage and applies to governments, not individuals.

"So you can think about those that might have a religious opposition to baking cakes for same-sex marriages," she said. "That's already covered in the law. But this only applies to government actors. Again, not private individuals or churches."

The legislation also does not recognize polygamous marriages.

"What they're doing is censuring me for maintaining the status quo and actually providing greater religious freedoms for everyone across the United States of America," Ernst said.

USA TODAY contributed to this story.

Brianne Pfannenstiel is the chief politics reporter for the Des Moines Register. Reach her at bpfann@dmreg.com or 515-284-8244. Follow her on Twitter at @brianneDMR.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Joni Ernst defends Respect for Marriage Act vote despite GOP censure