tbabcock@timesrepublican.com
Called upon by Iowa House Minority Leader Todd Prichard to strip State Rep. Dean Fisher (R-Montour) of his committee assignments, Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley made it clear he will not meet the request.
“Minority Leader Prichard is playing the exact partisan politics he hypocritically denounced in his opening comments just two short weeks ago,” Grassley said. “Just as we’re seeing from the left across the country, Leader Prichard clearly believes that the right to free speech should only belong to those he agrees with. This session, Republicans are focused on doing the job they were elected to do. With Republicans now representing part or all of 97 out of Iowa’s 99 counties, Iowans made their voices heard, unequivocally, that they want more of the steady leadership shown by House Republicans and less of the partisan games and attacks from Democrats.”
tbabcock@timesrepublican.com
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Anti-abortion activists participate in the 2020 “March for Life” rally near Capitol Hill in Washington. Organizers of the March for Life, the anti-abortion movement’s preeminent annual event, are asking their supporters nationwide not to gather in Washington in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and political unrest.
Iowa House Republicans are kicking off the 2021 legislative session by reigniting the debate over whether or not the Iowa Constitution guarantees the right to an abortion.
A draft of anti-abortion constitutional amendment passed an Iowa subcommittee by a vote of 2-to-1 on Tuesday, aiming to overturn a 2018 Iowa Supreme Court decision guaranteeing abortion as a right. The draft states the amendment would change the Iowa Constitution to, “not recognize, grant or secure a right to an abortion or require the public funding of abortion.”
Trevor Babcock
State lawmakers representing districts in Marshall County started work at the Iowa Capitol wrapped up the first week of the 2021 legislative session, but their work has only just begun.
State Rep. Dean Fisher (R-Montour) has served the 72nd district for the past seven years, while newly elected State Rep. Sue Cahill (D-Marshalltown) is serving the 71st district for the first time.
Fisher hopes to expand parental choice in the education system, develop a conservative budget, protect Second Amendment rights and push a pro-life amendment to rule against the Iowa Supreme Court’s to guarantee a right to an abortion in the Iowa constituion.