DES MOINES – Last week, a District Court Judge Karen Romano granted a temporary stay to block a decision passed by the Iowa Board of Medicine that would have banned the use of telemedicine abortions to women in outlying clinics. In a statement issued Wednesday, the socially conservative organization The Family Leader–the group that ousted three competent Iowa Supreme Court justices in 2010 because of their role in the marriage equality decision Varnum v. Brien–suggested that Judge Romano should also be ousted in an upcoming 2016 retention initiative.
“In 2010, Iowans held three activist supreme court judges in check when they voted ‘no’ on their retention,” the Family Leader said in their statement. “Apparently Judge Romano has not learned a lesson from that vote.” The Family Leader went on to encourage “Iowans to remember Judge Karen Romano’s activism when she is up for retention in November 2016.”
Donna Red Wing, spokesperson for the Iowa Fair Courts Coalition, issued the following statement in response:
“The Family Leader’s threat to remove Judge Karen Romano in a 2016 retention vote is unfair and misguided. Judge Romano ruled based on the law and based on what she understood to be in the best interest of Iowans. The stay issued by Judge Romano simply means that this telemedicine system–which has been used safely and effectively for five years now with no adverse effects–may continue while the issues are being further evaluated.
“One Iowa and the Iowa Fair Courts Coalition admonishes the Family Leader for threatening to oust Judge Romano in 2016 based solely on a stay order it happens to disagree with. Does Bob Vander Plaats and the Family Leader honestly believe that they have the right to remove any judge they deem unworthy by their standards?
“On the contrary, our court system was designed to be fair and impartial and the Family Leader’s tactics do little more than inject divisive politics into our judicial system. In 2010, we lost three fair and competent Iowa Supreme Court judges. We cannot let this kind of injustice continue, and the Iowa Fair Courts Coalition will remain committed to fighting for a judiciary that is free from politics.”
