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A vasectomy story

Or, Taking Thunderfuck Mountain by Strategy: Enter the Wyrm King One. I am prone on the table, awake, naked and aware. The light is open and white, as are the gypsum ceiling tiles and what bit of the upper walls I can make out. I am not restrained, but I don’t think to move. My […]

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Iowa House Republicans push through an amendment to add anti-abortion language to the Iowa Constitution

Shortly after 9 on Wednesday night, the Republican-controlled Iowa House of Representatives passed a constitutional amendment to eliminate the existing protection for abortion rights in Iowa. The vote was 55-44, with three Republicans — Jane Bloomingdale of Northwood, Lee Hein of Monticello and David Maxwell of Gibson — joining all the chamber’s Democrats in opposing […]

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Planned Parenthood and ACLU of Iowa file a lawsuit challenging new abortion restriction passed by Iowa lawmakers

Planned Parenthood of the Heartland and the ACLU of Iowa filed a lawsuit seeking to stop a new restriction on abortion passed by the Iowa legislature earlier this month. A bill fast-tracked by Republican leaders in the legislature and passed only hours after it was introduced would mandate a 24-hour waiting period by requiring a […]

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Planned Parenthood seeks injunction against Gov. Reynolds’ ban on surgical abortions (Updated)

Update: The Reynolds administration backed off its attempt ban all surgical abortions in Iowa under the governor’s emergency ordering prohibiting “nonessential or elective surgeries and procedures that utilize personal protective equipment,” before the starting of a Wednesday afternoon hearing on the Planned Parenthood of Heartland’s request for an emergency injunction. “Rita Bettis Austen, legal director […]

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Gov. Reynolds is attempting to ban surgical abortions as ‘nonessential’ medical procedures during COVID-19 crisis

On Thursday, Gov. Kim Reynolds signed an emergency proclamation that, among other things, banned all “nonessential or elective surgeries and procedures that utilize personal protective equipment” for the duration of the COVID-19 emergency in the state. On Friday, the governor’s spokesperson told Barbara Rodriguez of the Des Moines Register that ban includes surgical abortions. In […]

Posted inLetters

Letter to the editor: The tangled concept of personhood

Personhood? Who has recently tangled themselves in that labyrinth and fallen for the heartbeat cliche? And how ironic that the Christians, for millennia the purveyors of patriarchal prejudice and, too often, downright hate, with its resulting mayhem, how ironic that they have fixated on the heart as an indicator of anything.

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Judge strikes down Iowa’s ‘fetal heartbeat’ law

A district court judge in Polk County struck down Iowa’s so-called “fetal heartbeat” law on Tuesday. Judge Michael Huppert ruled the law, which banned almost all abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected at six weeks, violates the state’s constitution. “We are grateful the Court blocked Gov. Reynolds’ egregious attempt to ban safe, legal […]

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ACLU of Iowa, Planned Parenthood and the Emma Goldman Clinic sue to overturn Iowa’s new abortion law

Update: On June 1, Polk County District Court Judge Michael Huppert issued a temporary injunction blocking enforcement of the new abortion law at the conclusion of the first hearing on the lawsuit. Attorneys representing the state did not object to the injunction. A court challenge to Iowa’s new law banning most abortions after a fetal […]

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