Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
When Congressional Republicans use abortion in an attempt to rally their base around a bill that would end most low-income family planning services, they are not only being disingenuous about how federal monies can be used, but are attempting to undermine what Iowans and Americans have indicated is a very needed program, Planned Parenthood of the Heartland said in a statement Friday.
The group, which services portions of Iowa, Nebraska and Illinois, was responding to U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, saying in an e-mail to supporters that he would co-sponsor a bill by fellow Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana that seeks to strip all Title X funding from medical providers who also offer abortion services. According to King’s e-mail, such funding is a “government subsidy” to “the immoral act of abortion.”
Although King stops short of saying that taxpayer funds are being used to pay for abortions, which is banned under federal law via the Hyde Amendment, he says providing family planning services to medical facilities and organizations that also provide abortion allows for the “perverse pro-choice message” to be heard.
Planned Parenthood of the Heartland took exception to both King’s assertion and actions by Congressional Republicans to further limit family planning funding.
“Republicans are using old tricks once again in their singular focus on abortions,” Planned Parenthood noted in a statement to The Iowa Independent. “It’s interesting the Republican party is casting itself as a ‘new’ party when they are relying on the same old playbook. When it comes to the issue of abortion, they are using the same rhetoric and tactics and getting the same results — Iowans have made it clear in race after race, when it comes down to the wire, they want abortion rights protected and increased funding for family planning.”
A 2009 poll by Anzalone Liszt Research for the local affiliate shows that 82 percent of Iowans want to see family planning funding increased.
In 2009, more than 71,000 Iowans received benefits through Title X at 74 medical sites across the state. Nationally, in 2008, services were provided to roughly 5 million people through a network of more than 4,500 community-based clinics that include state and local health departments, tribal organizations, hospitals, university health center, independent clinics, community health centers, faith-based organizations and other public and private nonprofit agencies.
“The GOP’s focus on abortion as a wedge issue blinds them to the fact that they are trying to cut preventative health care, including birth control, which helps reduce the need for abortion,” the statement concluded. “In this tough economy, when the nation is calling for increased access to health care, Congressman King seems woefully out-of-touch in trying to cut one of the most successful health care programs serving those with lower incomes.”
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