Fighting for Women’s Health

This is the most dangerous moment for women’s health in Iowa in nearly 50 years. The Supreme Court is poised to overturn the Roe v. Wade judicial decision that has protected the right to an abortion since 1973. State legislatures across the country, including here in Iowa, have passed or are readying abortion bans that will take away that right at the state level. And in Congress, nearly 20 Senators and more than 150 Representatives have already backed a bill that will ban abortion nationwide even in cases of rape, incest, and when the life of the mother is at risk. It could even outlaw some forms of birth control and in vitro fertilization.

We are on the verge of going back to a dangerous time when women did not control the right to make decisions about their own bodies. And Sen. Chuck Grassley is on the verge of fulfilling a career long goal to bring about that reality.

In his very first Senate term, Sen. Grassley voted in favor of a constitutional amendment to overturn Roe v. Wade and affirm that “a right to abortion is not secured by this Constitution.” While that measure failed, Sen. Grassley never stopped trying to ban abortion, and he’s spent decades voting for measures to restrict choice and pack the court system with judges and justices who will roll back the protections afforded by Roe.

He finally got his chance more than 30 years later when, as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he helped Mitch McConnell steal a seat on the Supreme Court. Sen. Grassley blocked Barack Obama’s nomination of the pro-choice Merrick Garland and instead shepherded through Justice Neil Gorsuch a year later. Justice Gorsuch will likely comprise the deciding vote to overturn Roe v. Wade and end the decades-old right to an abortion.

It’s time to make Sen. Grassley pay by replacing him with the youngest woman ever to serve in the Senate who will fight to uphold abortion rights.

As one of the only women of child bearing age in the Senate, I’ll fight every day to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act to keep politicians out of the doctor’s office and protect the right to an abortion. But my commitment to women’s health does not end there. I’ll continue to be an advocate for women and families, prioritizing efforts to fight challenges facing women such as endometriosis and the baby formula shortage, each of which I’ve actively fought for in the past.

Read my full plan here.