Iowa Senate passes bill restricting abortion pills via telehealth, sends measure to governor

DES MOINES, Iowa (Iowa Capital Dispatch) - After a politically charged debate, the Iowa Senate approved House File 2563 Sunday, a bill that would restrict access to abortion-inducing medications like mifepristone through telehealth and mail-order prescription services. The legislation adds that medical treatment for miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies could not be construed as abortion procedures under state law.

Sen. Jason Schultz, R-Schleswig, argued the measure was for the safety of women, citing the potential to access unknown “poison” on the internet, without adequate information about safety and side effects.

Democrats who opposed the bill argued that requiring an in-person medical appointment for a prescription would put a greater burden on rural Iowans who may have to wait weeks or months for an appointment and who may have to travel significant distances to visit an OB-GYN physician.

“We have more and more rural health deserts. Labor and delivery rooms continue to close,” Weiner said. “Telehealth has become a lifeline for so many in this state, especially, but not only in rural Iowa, but if you’re a woman in a rural area where you would have to travel an hour and a half and can’t get an appointment, what are your options?”

Remarks from Sen. Zach Wahls, D-Coralville, who is running for U.S. Senate, sparked partisan vitriol. Wahls, pointing out that mifepristone was being treated differently in the bill from drugs used to end an ectopic pregnancy, asked Schultz what those kinds of drugs were called.

“I’m not going to let you trap me in that way,” Schultz said.

“They’re called abortion-inducing drugs,” Wahls said.

“Senator, possible congressman, I’m not going to let you make me part of your commercial,” Schultz said, leading to admonishments toward Wahls from Senate President Amy Sinclair about confining the debate to the topic of the bill.

Wahls also drew fire from Republicans by arguing that raw milk, which Republicans have worked to legalize, has been shown to create greater health hazards for pregnant women and fetuses than mifepristone does for women.

Sen. Cherilynn Westrich, R-Ottumwa, called the comparison “insulting.”

“But when the gentleman, when the senator from Johnson, conflates freedom milk with the risks and harm that can come from attempting to kill a human life, I find it a bit insulting that that is seen as equal. I believe that killing a human life is a big deal, and it needs to be a big deal,” she said.

Schultz referred to mifepristone repeatedly as “poison” and blamed the Biden administration for its availability by mail order. “Ladies and gentlemen, in 1920 or in 2023 there was a gentleman not fully capable of the job, and yet, supposedly, according to the media and a bunch of people, he got elected the president. He was in the White House and surrounded by nonaccountable, anonymous individuals of his choosing, or not. We had … what do they call them? Executive orders, autopen signed because he was not capable of signing his own.”

The bill passed on a vote of 30-11.

The House passed the bill Friday, the same day similar restrictions requiring in-person prescriptions for mifepristone took effect nationally through a U.S. appeals court decision.

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