Vander Plaats threatens GOP primaries over abortion; misinforms on controversial funding
More legislating from the pulpit because that’s what our economy needs according to tea fundies.
During a radio interview this morning, Bob Vander Plaats, head of the religious conservative organization The Family Leader, issued a warning to Republican lawmakers who aren’t willing to hold up state budget negotiations in order to strip Medicaid funding for certain abortions. He did so while attempting to imply that such existing Medicaid funding is somehow new.
“I think you will definitely see some primaries come out of this,” Vander Plaats told host Jan Mickelsen on Des Moines WHO radio Wednesday morning.
In discussing his personal convictions against access to abortion services by any woman and for any reason, Vander Plaats implied that funding for this particular Medicaid provision is a new addition or a new proposal by certain lawmakers. That is not the case.
House Republicans have threatened to hold up ongoing budget negotiations, which many hoped were nearing completion, to strip certain Medicaid funding that allows low-income pregnant women access to abortion services. The provisions, which have been a part of Iowa’s Health and Human Services budget for more than three decades, allow Medicaid to pay for wanted abortions in cases of life and health of the mother, rape, incest and certain congenital anomalies and neural tube defects.