Iowa event keeps the momentum

Iowa event keeps the momentum

Gazette Column
We have come a long way, but we still have a long way to go. Those words were spoken this week by Sen. Martha McSally, an Arizona Republican, retired Air Force colonel and the first female combat mission fighter pilot, as she revealed she was 'preyed upon and raped” by a superior officer while serving in the military. "So, like you, I also am a military sexual assault survivor, but unlike so many brave survivors, I didn't report being sexually assaulted. Like so many women and men, I didn't trust the system at the time,” McSally said at a subcommittee hearing on military sexual assault Wednesday. McSally also revealed, during the 2018 campaign, that she had been sexually abused by a high school coach when she was teenager. Such revelations…
Read More
Female Genital Mutilation: Felony or misdemeanor?

Female Genital Mutilation: Felony or misdemeanor?

Gazette Column
Committee work in the Iowa House and Senate has produced differing views on what should happen to those who engage in female genital mutilation. Legislation to prohibit the heinous practice of 'female cutting” is advancing in the Iowa Legislature, with bills now reported out of the judiciary committees in both chambers. That's the good news. The caveat is the bills have diverged, with the Senate bill continuing to call for felony prosecutions and the House bill reducing the offense to an aggravated misdemeanor. Both bills have continued language to protect only juveniles from such procedures. In addition, the Legislative Services Agency has filed fiscal reports in an attempt to show the state's cost in enacting such laws. Senate File 346 was reported out of committee on Feb. 21, with its…
Read More
#EndFGM — New Iowa bill for ‘Day of Zero Tolerance’

#EndFGM — New Iowa bill for ‘Day of Zero Tolerance’

Gazette Column
Today is the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation. So it is appropriate that members of the Iowa House have begun work on a bipartisan bill that would ban the heinous cultural practice in the Hawkeye State. Iowa Rep. Steve Holt, R-Denison, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, introduced House Study Bill 115 this week and assigned it to an all-female subcommittee consisting of Megan Jones, R-Sioux Rapids, Ashley Hinson, R-Marion, and Liz Bennett, D-Cedar Rapids. The introductory language of this bill is nearly identical to House File 63, which had been introduced last month by seven Democrats. Currently, the offering makes non-medical female genital mutilation procedures as well as trafficking girls for such procedures Class D felonies. This is the lowest tier of felonies in Iowa,…
Read More
March 8 is for women worldwide

March 8 is for women worldwide

Gazette Column
People around the globe will gather on March 8 to celebrate and advocate on behalf of women and girls. One such International Women’s Day gathering is a collaborative luncheon in Marion. The Women’s Equality Coalition of Linn County and the local branch of the American Association of University Women are partnering to host a catered box lunch event at Hills Bank, 3204 7th Ave., beginning at noon. Space is limited; advance tickets are $15 with all proceeds benefiting the Nancylee Ziese Scholarship Fund. “I think it’s important that women locally hear about and understand that many of the problems we face are faced by women and girls around the world. We are not alone; we are sisters,” said former Iowa lawmaker Bev Hannon, who serves as secretary for the Women’s…
Read More
Feminine hygiene product drive began with dignity

Feminine hygiene product drive began with dignity

Gazette Column
As Iowans extend a helping hand to those in need, feminine hygiene supplies are too often forgotten. A local group is stepping up to help. Members of the Cedar Rapids National Organization for Women are collecting pads and tampons to help support homeless and incarcerated women and girls. “The idea for the feminine hygiene product drive followed discussions on initiatives like the Dignity for Incarcerated Women Act,” said Bailey Mendenhall, chapter president. “Throughout our last few meetings we had been discussing legislative solutions, as well as other organizations’ efforts to assist women abroad and at home with access to these products. We decided that we should be doing something right here, within our own community.” The women learned that there is a near constant need for feminine hygiene products in local transitional housing…
Read More
Family planning services thin under Iowa GOP program

Family planning services thin under Iowa GOP program

Gazette Column
Despite Republican promises to the contrary, changes to family planning services has resulted in less access that will cost Iowans more. Last spring, Iowa Republicans crafted a new family planning program funded only with state dollars. They did so for the sole purpose of excluding providers that perform abortions or are part of a health network that does. Although abortion providers could accept public money under the previous program that was primarily funded at the federal level, none of the funds could be used for abortion services. The state’s new rules not only resulted in the expected exclusion of Planned Parenthood, but of other significant health care providers like the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and the statewide UnityPoint network. Promises of expanded access haven’t materialized, according to a…
Read More
Iowa Republicans are devaluing women – again

Iowa Republicans are devaluing women – again

Gazette Column
Iowa Republicans are once again making clear that they value the potential of pregnancy more than they value women. Their latest missive is Senate Study Bill 3143: “An act relating to the prerequisites for and prohibition against an abortion related to the testing for, and following the detection of, a fetal heartbeat, providing for a repeal, and providing penalties.” A nearly identical bill, HF2163, was introduced in the Iowa House: “An act recognizing the rights and protections accorded each life from the moment of fetal heartbeat detection, prohibiting the performance of an abortion if a fetal heartbeat is detected, providing for licensee discipline, and providing a repeal.” Both bills basically state that, once a fetal heartbeat is detected by ultrasound, a pregnant woman cannot legally obtain an abortion. Doctors who defy the…
Read More
Sisterhood explains it very well

Sisterhood explains it very well

Gazette Column
As a young girl, Jeanne White was rocked by a neighbor who softly cried and spoke a strange language. What White remembers most is wetting her finger tips with her tongue and trying to rub away the bluish-black numbers on the neighbor’s arm. “I didn’t know until years later what those numbers meant,” White said as her eyes welled with tears. I pivoted our conversation back to the pocket-sized copies of the U.S. Constitution fanned atop the folding table in front of White and her friend, Sharon Poplawski, hoping to calm emotions so that I could hear the rest of her story. After a few minutes, White resumed and said, when she was older, her mother confided that the neighbor’s children were murdered during the Holocaust. [caption id="attachment_1881" align="alignright" width="500"]…
Read More
Iowa Republicans blinded by abortion

Iowa Republicans blinded by abortion

Gazette Column
However shortsighted, expensive and harmful the resulting policies may be, Iowa Republicans remain obsessed with abortion. Last legislative session, they chose to scrap the Iowa Family Planning Network waiver, primarily funded by the federal government, and replace it with a new program funded solely by the state. That initiative, now known as the Family Planning Program, took effect July 1. Both programs provide men and women of childbearing age who do not qualify for Medicaid a cost-effective way of accessing reproductive health services including contraception, exams, screenings and testing. The Iowa switch wasn’t proposed because the original program was riddled with fraud or otherwise ineffective. In May 2016, the University of Iowa Public Policy Center concluded that more than 80,000 women had used the Iowa Family Planning Network waiver since…
Read More
Sexual harassment report urges action

Sexual harassment report urges action

Gazette Blog
Nearly five years after complaint 'there is nothing that has changed' On Friday, the Iowa Republicans shared a four-page report by Mary Kramer, which included specific recommendations “for achieving the goal of creating and maintaining a safe, respectful and professional workplace in the Iowa Senate.” Kramer, a former Republican lawmaker, U.S. ambassador and human resource professional, was asked by GOP leadership to prepare the report after a wrongful termination lawsuit was successfully brought against the state, placing taxpayers on the hook for $1.75 million. Although Senate Majority Leader Bill Dix, R-Shell Rock, has yet to acknowledge or express remorse for it, a court ruled GOP leadership retaliated against a female employee by terminating her employment hours after she had submitted a formal complaint of sexual harassment. Court documents, as well…
Read More