MASON CITY – Medically necessary abortions for poor women must be approved by Governor Terry Branstad under the health care bill he signed into law in Mason City on June 20th.
Language in the bill states that Medicaid funding for abortions is “contingent upon receipt of approval from the office of the governor of reimbursement for each abortion performed under the program.”
This language means that Governor Terry Branstad must review and approve each individual abortion procedure that would be paid for with Medicaid funds before the procedure can move forward.
“Such an arrangement is unknown anywhere else in the country, and threatens to place a political barrier between patients and medically necessary procedures,” Planned Parenthood of the Heartland President Jill June told the Des Moines Register.
The law also aims to curb abortions, stating that “Iowans support reducing the number of abortions performed in our state.”
Under the new law, for an abortion covered under the Medicaid program – except in the case of a medical emergency – the physician performing an abortion shall certify both of the following:
(1)That the woman has been given the opportunity to view an ultrasound image of the fetus as part of the standard of care before an abortion is performed.
(2)That the woman has been provided information regarding the options relative to a pregnancy, including continuing the pregnancy to term and retaining parental rights following the child’s birth, continuing the pregnancy to term and placing the child for adoption, and terminating the pregnancy.
Under the new law, Iowa will accept federal dollars offered to states that expand Medicaid under the “Obamacare” plan, helping poor Iowans gain coverage.
The health care bill was lauded by Democrats and Republicans alike as a bi-partisan effort.
“We worked diligently to come up with a bipartisan, Iowa-based solution that makes the most sense for our state- and we were successful,” said state representative Linda Upmeyer.
What a bunch of retard postings. Branstad, Kevin Pals, where Branstad is from, cannabis. The article is about Medicaid funded abortions and Branstad approving them. If you’re not going to stick to the subject, why do you even post on here?
@just saying-and your post is nothing but bitching about what other people post. Why do you bother even posting on here? I do it because I can.
@lvs – You post here because you’re a house bound loser who needs a reason to exist. All I ask is to keep the posts relevant to the subject and not go off on a tangent as you usually do.
@just saying-hey Big Mouth. How would you like to try to back up your insults? I am not house bound and am damn sure not a loser. It takes a real idiot, coward like you to come up with that kind of crap. Real brave of you chicken Sh##. If you don’t like our post don’t read them but shut your freaking pie hole or I will find you and shut it for you.
@lvs – Big words from a little house bound loser. You bore me. Good bye.
@just stupid-You can run coward but I will be waiting for you to come out of hiding. You started this crap and you can’t run from it. You want to shoot off your big mouth to people and then hide. Easy for you to make comments about someone when you are hiding behind a fake name. You are like all Libraterds, no guts.
Mason City should be ashamed to have bumstead as a north iowa born person. also you should be ashamed to have him in Mason City to sign this bullshit law. His mother should have had an abortion.
@50 Miles-he is not from Mason City. He is from around Lake Mills which is about 35 miles from here. As bad as he might be he is still 100% better than Culver.
I know he isnt from Mason City. Thats why I said north Iowa born. But still considered north Iowa. and closer to you in MC than I am. YOU may not like Culver, but I made more money during those years compared to now. I blame Bush for the problems during the culver years. And even tho i voted for our current president, I cant say that he is doing the best of job either. But at least he was better than our other choice…Rummey.
Unfortunately, we’ll never know just how good Romney would have been and how he would have turned this country around.
The election is over, move on.
Katie: take a look at what Rummey did for work at Bain capital. He took over companies, laid off, fired people or simply moved the company. People lost their jobs in America because of him. All while Rummey stashed mega bucks away in foreign (US tax free) bank accounts. WOW.. He is the very problem I was trying to explain to you in whiners den. concerning cost going up because of CEOs, employees making way too much money at the expense of the hard working American simply trying to pay their bills. never mind trying to save enough to take a vacation ect.
You must work for a Democrat. You always make less when they have the White House. You are trying to BS us about Bush and making less. Statistics show wages were up during his administration and so was purchasing power.
In the 50 plus years of working my take home pay went down when Democrats run the White House and my take home pay went up when Republicans were in the White House. I quickly learned to vote my pocket book and quit trusting the Democrats to help anybody.
Don’t you find it strange that the po’folk have been voting for Democrats for over 50 years and they are still poor.
You listen to to much of the 6:00 news lying scum bags on TV. Get a grip.
If these women have a problem w/the govt. having to approve their Medicaid funded abortion, then they should pay for the abortion themselves. You want govt. money, then you play by govt. rules. I’m tired of having to shell out money for every loser who wants to milk the govt. because they’re too lazy to pay their own way.
it is very obvious that you don’t have a clue about the poor and working poor. Most of the people that need help are working 40 or more hours a week at a job that pays $8 or $9 per hour. They do the very best they can with what God has given them and then people like you stand in their way when they need some help. What this law has done is widen the gap between the have’s and the have not’s. It is another law that will end up costing the taxpayers more money in the long run. You should try walking in the poor’s shoe for a day or two. You are totally clueless.
This is politics now just like cannabis. The Governor gets to practice medicine just like the police do now for pot. Branstad and Kevin Pals get to practice medicine because some people feel they have the right to affect other peoples choices.
@Iberra-just what the hell does Kevin Pals have to do with this article. What’s the matter? Did Pals arrest you for illegal drugs again. You belong in jail with your girl friend Tanya.
The only abortion the troll has any business discussing is his own. Other than that, he needs to keep his nasty self out of it. Who does he think he is?
Am I the only one confused by this article? The first paragraph says medically necessary abortions. The rest of the article says each individual abortion. There is a difference between elective and medically necessary. Which is it? If he is reviewing medically necessary abortion requests after 20 weeks, fine. If he is denying elective abortions prior to that, not so fine with me.
I agree, Katie. Very confusing. I’m hoping this is just referring to abortions after 20 weeks. He has no business (as LVS stated) deciding on every single abortion performed on Medicaid patients.
Now this is BULL. just what makes him qualified to make a medical decision that will effect a woman’s life?