Abortion

Is Iowa Just Going to Draft a “Ban Carhart” Bill?

After stating he was uncomfortable with the language of an 20 week abortion ban, Gronstal has said he'd like to look for other ways to ensure Cahart won't open a clinic.

Iowa Majority Leader Mike Gronstal has been hemming and hawing on allowing a 20 week abortion ban onto the senate floor for debate and a vote.  But it’s becoming more clear that although he doesn’t want the ban itself, he wants the end result — eliminating the possibility that Dr. Leroy Carhart might open up a clinic in his district that would perform later abortions.

So he’s trying to find a way to cut to the chase and just ban Carhart.  And it sounds like he might be close to an answer.

Via Radio Iowa:

The top Democrat in the Iowa Senate says he thinks “there’s a way” to ensure a Nebraska doctor who performs so-called “late-term” abortions cannot open a clinic in Council Bluffs.

Senate Democratic Leader Mike Gronstal, who is from Council Bluffs, says work is underway to make changes in a bill that already cleared the Iowa House, a bill that would ban abortions in Iowa after the 20th week of a pregnancy.

 

“The legislation as drafted by the House I think significantly invites a very serious court challenge,” Gronstal said today on Iowa Public Radio. “So I think we’re trying to look at some ways to fix that up in such a way that we can guarantee a new, late-term abortion clinic doesn’t open in Council Bluffs.”

Senator Joe Bolkcom, a Democrat from Iowa City, was asked last week to examine the House-passed bill and lead the process of making changes. “So I’ve spent part of last week and other the weekend studying the bill and working to craft some amendments that deal with what we think is the number one concern that the bill tries to address and that’s the establishment of a clinic by Dr. LeRoy Carhart in Council Bluffs,” Bolkcom told statehouse reporters this afternoon.

If he believes women have a constitutional right to a later abortion given certain circumstances, exactly where does Gronstal expect these abortions to be done?  He does realize it would happen in someone’s city, right?