Representative Taylor Collins monthly newsletter
To the People of House District 95
The joys of summer may have come to an end, but this time of year brings many other joys as well. School has started and college football has already kicked off. By next month even hunting season will be here! In this newsletter I give some usual updates about the activities of state government over the interim, but also take time to examine the consequences of liberal leadership for our neighbor to the north, Minnesota.
DHHS Releases Behavioral Health District Map
Last month, the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services released the new Behavioral Health Service District Map that will go into effect July 1, 2025. The map is at the end of this newsletter.
This map comes based on the legislature passing House File 2673 this session with significant bipartisan support. This bill transitions the current county run mental health and disability services regional system to a state behavioral health service system with state contracted administrative service organizations governed by the Department of Health and Human Services. The legislation required DHHS to release the district map by August 1st.
DHHS announced this week on a stakeholder call that it will be releasing the ASO RFP in mid-September. The populations between the districts vary significantly, and DHHS has stated that the funding formula will not be only based on population, but also by other factors that will be developed through the statewide planning process required in the bill.
The bill additionally does the following:
• The behavioral health service system has the purpose of prevention, education, early intervention, treatment, recovery support, and crisis services for mental health, substance use, tobacco use, and problem gambling.
• DHHS will divide the state into behavioral health districts with ASOs to oversee each district and its behavioral health services. ASOs will be selected through RFP. Each district will have a district behavioral health advisory council.
• The bill directs the funds from the federal community health mental health services block grant and the federal substance abuse prevention and treatment block grant to DHHS.
• Creates a central data repository for behavioral health data with demographic information, expenditure data, and services and supports provided to individuals.
• Establishes a behavioral health fund, with similar funding to the existing annual increases based on a state growth factor. The bill prohibits an ASO from spending more than 7% on administrative costs.
• Provides $3 million from the regional incentive fund for 988. On January 1, 2024 there was $23.955 million in the incentive fund. This bill also appropriates $1 million from the regional incentive fund for DHHS administrative costs and requires DHHS to report to the legislature on administrative costs and funds for a central data repository.
• This bill requires DHHS to designate aging and disability resource centers to establish a coordinated system of providing assistance to persons with disabilities and the elderly.
• Timeline:
o August 1, 2024 – DHHS will designate the districts
o December 31, 2024 – DHHS will designate the ASO for each district
o July 1, 2025 – the behavioral health system and ADRCs are implemented
State Identifies $66 Million in Maintenance Needs at Iowa State Parks
Iowa state parks have pending maintenance projects costing a total of almost $67 million, according to a list produced by the Department of Natural Resources.
As part of the new budget for infrastructure projects, DNR was required to submit to the Legislature a list of maintenance projects identified in Iowa State Parks. This provision was included in the budget bill after media reports said over $100 million of maintenance was needed within the park system. The list was required to be submitted to the General Assembly before DNR would receive $6 million which was appropriated from the Rebuild Iowa Infrastructure Fund for state park maintenance.
DNR met the requirements and submitted the maintenance list to the Legislature just before the start of Fiscal Year 2025. The Department identified 641 different maintenance projects in the 83 state parks and other recreational facilities run by DNR. The cost of these projects totals up to $66,888,225.
There is a wide variety of maintenance requests amongst the state park system. These vary from replacing maintenance shops – the highest costing requests – to refinishing cabins, new roofs and windows on existing buildings, and replacing bathrooms and playground equipment.
With over 600 potential projects costing $67 million, these projects will take time and significant resources. The production of this list gives Iowans and the Legislature what is needed to help make a great state parks system even better.
Mental Health Rate Increases Announced
This session, the legislature appropriated $2.1 million in increased state funding towards mental health Medicaid rates. This builds on the work from last session which appropriated a $13 million increase.
DHHS recently announced the distribution of this funding increase to the following effective July 1, 2024:
• A 50% increase to Assertive Community Treatment. ACT is an evidence-based multidisciplinary team that helps people with serious mental illness live independently and reduce their need for hospitalization.
• A 15% increase to Crisis Response. (Mobile Crisis Response dispatches mental health counselors during a mental health crisis.)
• A 15% increase to Subacute. Subacute treatment provides a protective environment that includes stabilization, support, diagnostic evaluation and treatment, wellness, and transition to ongoing services provided 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week. Subacute mental health care facilities are intended to be short-term, intensive, recovery-oriented services and are designed to stabilize the member.
• A 5% increase to Applied Behavior Analysis rates, to help individuals with autism.
• A 3.3% increase to Community Mental Health Center rates based on the Medicaid rate review in 2024.
Comparing Iowa’s Elections Laws Across Swing States
Now that both presidential candidates have announced their running mates the election cycle is in full effect. With under 100 days before the presidential election reviewing how Iowa stacks up against the potential swing states in the 2024 election while comparing elections laws is an interesting process.
Absentee Ballot Requests
All states across the country have absentee voting. 14 states require an approved excuse for absentee voting to receive one, while Iowa and other states do not require a voter to provide an excuse. In 2021, House Republicans passed an election bill that strengthened the integrity and security of absentee voting in Iowa. In Iowa a voter can request an absentee ballot to be delivered via USPS to their home address to complete and return. In Iowa voters can request an absentee ballot either by mail or in person at their county auditor’s office 70 days before the election until 5:00PM 15 days before the election.
Deadlines to request an absentee ballot and methods across swing states:
Request Deadline Methods for requesting
Iowa 15 days before election In-person, mail
Arizona 11 Days before election In-person, mail, email, phone, online
Georgia 11 Days before election In-person, mail, email, fax
Michigan Friday before election In-person, mail, email, fax, online
Minnesota Day before election In-person, mail, email, fax, online
Nevada Automatic ballot delivery to all registered voters Automatic ballot delivery to all registered voters
Ohio 3 days before election In-person, mail
Pennsylvania Tuesday before election In-person, mail, online
Wisconsin 5 days before election In-person, mail, email, fax, online
Absentee Ballot Mail Period
One area election laws were changed to ensure uniformity throughout Iowa was that only absentee ballots received by the county auditor before 8PM on election night will be counted. Below you can see when absentee ballots are mailed to voters and when the deadline to return a ballot is across swing states.
Ballots Mailed to Voter Cutoff for Ballot Return
Iowa 20 days before election Received by close of polls
Arizona 24-27 days before election Received by close of polls
Georgia 25-29 days before election Received by close of polls
Michigan 45 days before election Received by close of polls
Minnesota 46 days before election Received by close of polls
Nevada At least 20 days before election 5:00pm 4th day after election if postmarked on or before election day
Ohio 29 days before election 5:00pm 4th day after election if postmarked on or before election day
Pennsylvania 50 days before election Received by close of polls
Wisconsin 47 days before election Received by close of polls
Ballot Return
As an increasing number of Iowans are voting by absentee ballots, it is important that counties and the state are ensuring the accuracy and validity of each absentee ballot. Once absentee ballots are mailed, daily reports on absentee ballot requests received, absentee ballots sent, and completed absentee ballots received by all county auditors and the Secretary of State will be published. In addition to the increased reporting, county auditors are now limited to establishing only one ballot drop box that is secured and monitored on county property. These drop boxes are required to be emptied and recorded at least four times a day during the absentee voting period.
One more impactful law passed by House Republicans was clearly defining who is allowed to return a voter’s completed absentee ballot on their behalf. Under current laws to combat ballot harvesting the only individuals authorized to return an absentee ballot for a voter are individuals who live in the same household of the voter, an immediate family member related to the voter (up to the 4th degree of consanguinity), a person authorized in accordance to law for a confined person, and a designated delivery agent. A delivery agent can be a registered voter who is not the voter’s employer, agent of the employer, an officer or agent of the voter’s union, or a person acting as an agent of a political party. Delivery agents are not allowed to return more than 2 absentee ballots in a general election. Delivery agents are able to deliver absentee ballots for voters who are unable to deliver their ballot due to blindness or another physical disability.
Below is how Iowa compares to other states for to combat ballot harvesting:
Drop boxes Authorized Ballot Collection
Iowa 1 Drop box on county property, constant surveillance, emptied 4 times a day Family member, household member, authorized for confined individual, and delivery agents (limited to 2 ballots)
Arizona Only at polling locations Family member, household member, caregiver
Georgia Limited to 1 per 100,000 active registered voters, constant surveillance by election official/law enforcement Family member, household member, caregiver, detention facility employee
Michigan No limit, constant surveillance Family member, household member
Minnesota No limit, constant surveillance, must be emptied daily Designated agent (limited to 3 ballots)
Nevada Required at all polling locations, additional may be set up Anyone authorized by the voter
Ohio 1 drop box on election office site, constant surveillance Family member
Pennsylvania No statewide policy Only the voter
Wisconsin No statewide policy Only the voter
Comparing Iowa’s election laws across these swing states clearly demonstrates that House Republicans have led the way in enacting legislation to protect the security and integrity of the election process while enabling Iowans the fundamental right to vote.
Secretary Naig Announces Another Record Year for Conservation in Iowa
Last month Secretary Naig updated Iowans on the states work with Iowa’s 100 Soil and Water Conservation Districts and farmers and landowners, again shattering a record for conservation and water quality practice adoption within Iowa during the last fiscal year. Secretary Naig made the announcement during remarks at the annual Conservation Districts of Iowa conference in Ames.
During the last fiscal year, which ended on June 30th, state cost-shares leveraged $56.42 million in practice implementation, an increase of nearly $3.8 million over the previous record year. For every dollar the state contributed, farmers and landowners matched that with $1.15 in investment. A decade ago, state cost-shares leveraged $34.12 million in conservation practice adoption, proving that the pace of implementation continues to accelerate. Notably, these record totals do not consider all other conservation and water quality funding paid by farmers and landowners, other governmental entities, and other private partners. They also do not factor in other programs at IDALS, including our wetlands programs, batch and build projects that install saturated buffers and bioreactors, Abandoned Mine Land reclamation projects, and many others.
Highlights for Fiscal Year 2024
• Department-wide Summary:
o $26.26 million in total cost-share was paid, which leveraged a total spending of $56.42 million in practice implementation.
In the previous fiscal year, which was also a record, $21.86 million and $52.67 million were the respective totals. This is an increase of nearly $3.8 million leveraged over the previous record year.
Ten years ago, in FY14, the totals were $14.91 million and $34.12 million, respectively.
o In addition to the record number of cost share dollars spent, we are also processing more than 6,700 cost-share claims per year in each of the past two years.
This is nearly 900 more than was paid in 2022, and nearly 2,000 more per year than we were paying ten years ago.
• Water Quality Initiative (WQI):
o Of the department-wide investment total, more than $16.38 million was paid through the Water Quality Initiative.
This is up from $12.59 million last year, an increase of approximately $3.8 million.
o 4,855 practices were funded this past year through WQI, a number that has grown significantly from approximately 1,000 practices a decade ago.
• Iowa Financial Incentives Program (IFIP):
o Iowa was the first state to appropriate state cost-share funds for conservation practices back in 1973 through the Iowa Financial Incentive Program commonly known as “cost share.” Still going strong after 50 years, the IFIP program continues to see strong demand across all 100 Soil and Water Conservation Districts in the state.
o More than 90 percent of the IFIP funding is used for permanent structural practices, such as terraces and basins, grassed waterways, grade stabilization structures and more.
o IFIP provided financial assistance for 865 practices with cost share of $6.58 million.
• Additional Cost-Share Programs:
o Approximately $3 million of the department-wide funding total was provided by programs including the Resource Enhance and Protection Program (REAP), Watershed Protection Fund, District Buffer Initiative and others.
To keep the momentum building, Secretary Naig is encouraging farmers and landowners to utilize department cost-share funds to add even more proven practices this year. Through WQI, farmers who are planting cover crops for the first time are eligible to receive $30 per acre. Those who are continuing the practice can receive $20 per acre. Farmers transitioning acres to no-till or strip-till for the first time are eligible for $10 per acre. A payment of $3 per acre is available to first-time users of a nitrogen inhibitor when applying fall anhydrous ammonia fertilizer. WQI cost-share funding is available for up to 160 acres per farmer or landowner for each practice.
IFIP program funding is available as a continuous year-round signup and offers cost-share opportunities for a wide variety of conservation offerings. These include management practices such as cover crops as well as permanent structural practices such as terraces and grade stabilization structures. Farmers and landowners should visit their local Soil and Water Conservation District office located in the USDA Service Center in their county to learn more about program eligibility and to sign-up to participate.
Democrat Carbon Rule Will Be ‘Catastrophic’
Just before the Democrats began their convention celebrating their “climate change” accomplishments and more radical Green New Deal proposals for the future, a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission member answered questions to Congress on the Biden / Harris Administration’s Power Plant Rules, which, in effect, will close all coal plants in the U.S. by 2039.
FERC Commissioner Christie’s letter can be found here. In the letter, Commissioner Christie states that the “proposed regulations would have a very damaging impact on grid reliability by forcing the premature retirements of vitally needed dispatchable generation units and preventing the construction of sufficient new dispatchable resources.”
“If the EPA’s new power plant rule survives court challenge, it will force the retirements of nearly all remaining coal generation plants and will prevent the construction of vitally needed new combined-cycle baseload gas generation….This loss of vitally needed dispatchable generation resources will be catastrophic.”
The Harris / Walz campaign would also continue this work as Gov. Walz himself signed legislation requiring 100% carbon-free energy in Minnesota by 2040.
In the state of Iowa, the legislature has focused on ensuring affordable and reliable energy that meets demand, as well as consumer choice when it comes to vehicles and stoves. Unfortunately, there is nothing Iowa can do if the Democrats nationally continue a national push for impossible environmentalist standards that make the U.S. reliant on foreign countries for electricity and natural gas.
Biden Administration Overreaches (Again): Supreme Court Will Not Stop States from Blocking Title IX Changes
In a 5-4 decision last month, the Supreme Court denied the Biden administration’s emergency request to implement part of their Title IX changes. The Biden Administration claims the new rule provides discrimination protections for sexual orientation and gender identity which do not allow schools to deny care or services to transgender students or members of the LGBTQ community. In reality, the new rule allows males into female spaces and onto female athletic teams based on subjective “gender identity” assertions. The rule was supposed to be in effect on August 1st, but several states moved for injunctions against rule implementation. The ruling last month was on an emergency motion and the lower court cases in other states are still going through the court system.
Biden / Harris Administration to Provide Health Care Tax Credits to Illegal Aliens
In May, the Biden / Harris Administration announced that they will be providing significant health insurance tax credits to illegal immigrants that arrived in the country when they were children. Recently, 15 states, including Iowa, announced that they will be suing to block the rule from going in effect in those states.
The Biden / Harris rule to allow DACA recipients access to Advance payments of the premium tax credit (APTCs) and cost-sharing reductions under the health care marketplace likely has significant cost to the taxpayer for illegal immigrants. However, these tax credits will even apply to those DACA illegals below 100% of federal poverty level, meaning likely higher costs.
For context on taxpayer costs, the Iowa Insurance Division provided information to the legislature on APTCs in Iowa during the last legislative session. As of June 2023, there were 79,386 legal Iowans receiving APTCs. amounting to over $485 million in 2023.
This session, the Iowa House passed House File 2608, which included prohibiting illegal aliens from accessing Iowa welfare programs. Not surprisingly, all Democrats voted against the bill.
Retiring in Iowa vs. Minnesota—Iowa is the Clear Choice
Ready for retirement in the Midwest? Let’s compare Tim Walz’s Minnesota to Great State of Iowa.
According to the Minnesota House of Representatives House Research Department, here is what will happen to your money when you retire in Minnesota:
Minnesota taxes pension income, whether derived from governmental or private pensions, on the same basis as wages, interest, dividends, and other income. So, you are taxed just like you were when you worked.
The Minnesota tax code also does not allow an exclusion, deduction, or credit for any other type of pension income.
Minnesota follows the federal income tax rules in taxing Social Security benefits – meaning those are taxed (very few states still do this).
To summarize, if you are a retiree in Minnesota expect to pay taxes on your retirement income at rates from 5.35% to 9.85%.
What about Iowa?
Remember the tax cut that was signed into law in 2022? It was largest tax cut ever passed in Iowa and it put retirees in a great position with the following provisions:
Retired Farmer Lease Income Exclusion
Provides that a retired farmer’s income from rental of their property is exempt from tax. The farmer must be 55 / farmed for at least 10 years. This change began in tax year 2023.
Who does this help?
Farmers do not always have access to traditional retirement vehicles and accounts. They have been investing their entire lives in their “retirement account” – their land! This exclusion allows a farmer to rent their land to the next generation and not pay taxes on that “retirement” income.
Retirement Income Exemption
Iowa Code used to provide for an income tax exclusion for the first $6,000 of retirement income. This provided that all retirement income would be excluded from tax. The change began in tax year 2023.
Who does this help?
Retired teachers, nurses, and police officers. Any kind of qualified retirement plan would be tax free. This includes IPERS, 401(k)s, 403(b)s, IRAs, etc. Unlike Minnesota, Iowa wants people who grew up, worked, and raised families in Iowa to keep Iowa as their home in their golden years. This provision makes that dream a reality.
And Social Security?
Iowa has not taxed that in more than 15 years. Get with the times Minnesota! Last month Forbes’ best states to retire in came out and Iowa came in at a strong 9th place. Where was Minnesota? You had to read most of the list to get to Minnesota at number 41.
Minnesota Energy – More Expensive, Less Reliable
This year, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz rushed a bill through the legislature to require 100% carbon-free energy in the state by 2040. With 27% of Minnesota electricity coming from coal and 18% coming from natural gas, that is a significant amount of reliable generation to be taken offline, in exchange for intermittent energy generation.
Turns out, the sun doesn’t always shine, and the wind doesn’t always blow. During the hot summer when everyone has their air conditioning working at night and their electric vehicles charging in the garage, there could be significant blackout potential. As we saw in California in 2022, the Governor had to plead with residents to turn their air-conditioning up to 78 degrees and avoid use of big appliances.
Ironically, Minnesota also has a moratorium on new nuclear power, a carbon-free option.
Costs will be shifted to customers. Minnesota’s energy costs already exceed Iowa’s in all categories and will only continue to go up with this new mandate.
Iowans continue to support affordability and reliability of energy and maintaining practical solutions. This general assembly, the Governor signed HF 605. This bill simply says that state and local governments cannot impose energy benchmarking on private properties. Energy benchmarking is when a city or county government requires a decrease in the average energy use of a private property, but still allows for those city and county governments to impose those requirements on their city and county owned buildings. Small businesses and consumers oppose these types of mandates, yet all Democrats voted against a bill to protect them from this government overreach.
Minnesota’s Transportation System Takes a Weird Turn Under Tim Walz
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has taken his state on a major left turn when it comes to transportation policy. Whether it be higher taxes or who can drive, Walz had no problem approving just about every weird idea the Minnesota legislature put before him over the past two years.
One of Walz’s prouder accomplishments is letting anyone get a state-issued driver’s license. In March of 2023, Walz signed the “Driver’s Licenses for All” bill. That law said anyone in the state of Minnesota who was at least 21 years old could get a driver’s license if:
• Pass a vision test;
• Pass a written test to get a driver’s permit;
• Pass a driving test; and
• Prove one’s identity.
The law allows everyone – including illegal immigrants – to be issued a Minnesota state driver’s license. Under the law, legal status is not checked and any information obtained in this process cannot be shared with law enforcement.
Walz’s controversial law isn’t just supported by the radical left in Minnesota. In the Iowa Democratic Party’s (IDP) 2024 state platform, plank 307 says IDP supports “undocumented immigrant vehicle registration / driver licenses after testing”.
Another part of Walz’s transportation agenda has been sticking it to drivers through higher taxes. Primary amongst the increases he has signed into law was the decision to raise the state’s fuel tax. Gasoline is currently taxed at 28.5 cents per gallon in Minnesota, but that changed in August 2023 as the state started recalculating the tax each August on how much or little the Highway Construction Inflation Index changes in the previous year. The change in the fuel tax is expected to take Minnesota’s fuel tax above the rates in all of its neighboring states.
Deliveries of most goods with a value of at least $100 are now being assessed a 50 cent fee in Minnesota. This new fee is not assessed on deliveries of food, medicine, or baby products and would not impact businesses with less than $1 million in annual sales. But there are still enough qualifying deliveries to raise a projected $59 million over the first two years in effect.
Vehicle buyers and owners in Minnesota did not escape that state’s appetite for more taxes either. The sales tax on new vehicles was raised from 6.5% to 6.875%, which will cost vehicle purchasers another $200 million over its first four years in effect. And registering those vehicles is now more expensive in Minnesota, as those fees are rising from $10 plus 1.25% of the base value of a passenger vehicle to $10 plus 1.54% for vehicles purchased before November 2020 and 1.575% for vehicles bought after that date. The changes to the vehicles sales tax and vehicle registration fees are projected to take another $350 million from Minnesotans in the current two-year budget.
Has Minnesota Education Under Gov. Walz Drifted as Far Left as Rumored?
Now that we have Vice President Kamala Harris’s pick for running mate, let’s examine what he’s done for education in Minnesota.
Under Gov. Tim Walz, Minnesota adopted new, controversial, social studies standards. “Ethnic Studies” is required as part of K-12 instruction. What exactly does “Ethnic Studies” mean? The legislature defined ethnic studies as the “interdisciplinary study of race, ethnicity, and indigeneity with a focus on the experiences and perspectives of people of color within and beyond the United States.Ethnic studies analyzes the ways in which race and racism have been and continue to be social, cultural, and political forces, and the connection of race to the stratification of other groups.”
For example, Kindergartners will be asked to “retell a story about an unfair experience that conveys a power imbalance.”
First graders will be required to “identify examples of ethnicity, equality, liberation and systems of power, and use those examples to construct meanings for those terms.”
Fourth graders will be required to “identify the processes and impacts of colonization and examine how discrimination and the oppression of various race and ethnic groups have produced resistance movements” as well as “explain the role that stereotypes and images based on race, religion, geography, ethnicity and gender play in the construction of an individual’s/group’s identity.”
Fifth graders will be required to “analyze anti-colonial and anti-racist resistance movements of culturally, racially and ethnically diverse people throughout the world.”
High school students will then be required to “investigate how the establishment of the Minnesota and U.S. government upheld and violated ideas of freedom, equality and justice for individuals and groups” and “examine the construction of racialized hierarchies based on colorism and dominant European beauty standards and values.” Ethnic Studies is clearly another name for Critical Race Theory.
Under the Republican led Legislature and Gov. Reynolds, Iowa has taken a less politically partisan and far more mainstream approach. Over the objections of Iowa Democrats, the legislature passed a bill making sure important figures in American history are key parts of curriculum. Who are examples of these important figures? George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King, Jr. to name a few. Actual history, the good, the bad and the ugly, without the politically tainted lens of critical race theory is taught. Under the new legislation, the process for the social studies standards revision begins soon. The above ideas are one of the reasons the House fought so strongly to get social studies standards re-done so politically motivated activists can no longer weave their ideologies into the curriculum. Something that is clearly happening under Gov. Walz in Minnesota.
Many Minnesota schools also have adopted policies that allow schools to hide information from parents. Iowa made sure that parents are informed if their child wants to be called a different name or identify as a different gender. Parents have a right to know what is happening with their own child inside their schools. Not so In Minnesota where school personnel are told to keep that a secret. Some parents have said that it seems teachers are not just concealing this information, but encouraging children to change to a different identity. In Iowa, parents’ rights matter.
Minnesota education law also prohibits religious colleges and universities from requiring faith statements from high school students who are taking college credit through their school. You read that correctly. High school students who choose to take college credit through Christian colleges or universities are prohibited by law from affirming their faith with that institution of higher education. Christian families and colleges sued Governor Walz for this policy. The litigation is ongoing, but the state’s argument is that since these private colleges would be taking public money that makes them state actors and therefore requiring a faith statement is unconstitutional. This deviates from any state aid money going to private colleges. In Iowa, this would mean our private colleges would become state actors because they accept students who receive the Iowa Tuition Grant.
Finally, how far from biological reality has Minnesota drifted? Under Gov. Walz, the state providing free period products for students in 4th through 12th grade. Which shouldn’t be controversial. However, the period products are placed not only in the girls bathrooms and locker rooms. Period products must only be make available in the boys bathrooms and locker rooms as well. Why? Because “not all students who menstruate are female,” according to Democrat Rep. Sandra Feist.
Left wing political ideologies are woven into Minnesota’s education system. Thank goodness that common sense still has a place in Iowa.
Minnesota’s Extreme Abortion Laws
Iowans recognize that abortion is a deeply emotionally charged issue on which Iowans hold many differing personal beliefs. Iowa has passed, and had upheld in the courts, a heartbeat law with many exceptions for the life and health of the mother, rape, incest, and fetal abnormality. While some believe this is too early in the pregnancy, most Iowans can agree that having an abortion up until the moment of birth is extreme and cruel.
However, that is the law in Minnesota.
Minnesota not only allows for abortions till the moment of birth, but they also actually struck language that required care to preserve the life of the born alive infant from abortion (sec. 56) and reporting requirements on medical interventions to save the baby (sec. 53).
Iowa has not covered any Medicaid funding of abortions since 2013, when the Democrats were still in control of the Iowa Senate. Minnesota now funds all abortions for Medicaid individuals (sec. 38).
Minnesota even struck language prohibiting someone from coercing you to have an abortion (sec. 61).
Even in Iowa, Democrats have opposed common sense legislation to support mothers and babies because they prefer to support abortion. This session, they voted unanimously against maternity home legislation and the more options for maternal support program.
HF 2276 prohibits cities from restricting maternity group homes in residential areas. A maternity group home is a community-based residential home that provides room and board, personal care, supervision, training, support and education in a family environment for women who are pregnant or have given birth in the last two years. This legislation is modeled after protections that already are in place for homes for those with developmental disabilities and brain injury in Iowa Code 414.22.
These homes help women in need of housing that want to bring their children in to this world in a stable and healthy home. The state has made clear that maternity homes, as well as homes for disabled Iowans, are important for the state, and that local governments cannot block them based on a “not in my back yard” mentality.
Staying in Touch
As always, you can can shoot me an email with any questions or concerns at taylor.collins@legis.iowa.gov or you can call the Capitol Switchboard and leave me a message at (515) 281-7340.
Sincerely,
Rep. Taylor Collins