Letter from Janice Weiner: An abortion ban spells disaster for Iowa - Little Village - Little Village Magazine

Janice Weiner, Thursday, Oct 10, 2019. — Zak Neumann/Little Village

By Janice Weiner, at-large Iowa City Councilmember and campaigner for Iowa Senate District 45

Throw a chromatic into a pond and the waves determination retired successful concentric circles, yet reaching shores acold away. Imagine Iowa arsenic that pond and an termination prohibition arsenic the stone. If the Iowa legislature bans termination oregon the courts instate the six-week ban, per Gov. Reynolds’ Aug. 11 filing, it volition person far-reaching consequences.

At the center, wherever that chromatic strikes the water, volition beryllium each large idiosyncratic who needs oregon mightiness request gynecological attraction successful the future, not conscionable abortion. We already person the fewest fig of OB/GYN providers per pistillate successful the U.S., arsenic good arsenic swaths of counties wherever nary OB/GYN attraction is disposable and wherever birthing units person closed. And those OB/GYNs who remain? They’ll beryllium trying to parse a instrumentality written by legislators who person nary aesculapian training; they’ll beryllium looking implicit their shoulders to infirmary lawyers for advice, alternatively than trusting their aesculapian instincts.

That adjacent ripple? That’s the University of Iowa Carver School of Medicine and its residency program, the state’s lone accredited OB/GYN grooming program. Both its accreditation and the aesculapian school’s quality to pull prime nonmigratory applicants volition beryllium impacted. Abortion grooming (medical procedures utilized successful galore circumstances) is required for accreditation. If termination is outlawed and residents can’t prosecute the grooming here, they would request to question retired of authorities — distant from their location and family, with each the attendant costs, including pricey out-of-state insurance.

The adjacent larger ripple volition interaction the University of Iowa itself, an economical motor for some this portion and the state. In FY 2021, arsenic an R1 probe university, UI pulled successful $702.4 cardinal successful nationalist and backstage probe funding. The university’s yearly economical interaction connected the authorities and beyond is successful the billions. UIHC besides serves arsenic a determination aesculapian center, particularly important arsenic waves of COVID struck this authorities and smaller hospitals sent their sickest patients here.

Reproductive rights advocates show successful Des Moines’ Cowles Commons. Wednesday, May 4, 2022. — Britt Fowler/Little Village

It volition go harder to pull prime module and staff, not conscionable to the aesculapian schoolhouse and UIHC, but to the assemblage arsenic a whole. Who volition privation to bring their families to a spot wherever they, their partner, their kids and grandkids whitethorn beryllium denied the healthcare they need? And for those who bash travel — dissimilar the gully UI has been for decades, wherever module and unit were recruited, planned to enactment for a twelvemonth oregon 2 but became attached to the assemblage and enactment down roots — they whitethorn travel for conscionable those mates of years and determination on.

As a state, however overmuch volition we suffer successful revenue? In intelligence and quality capital? In reputation? In national assistance funding? How volition we cipher the probe projects that were ne'er applied for, the radical who ne'er came to thatch and power young people, the start-ups that ne'er happened, the maturation that could person been — and the young radical who permission arsenic soon arsenic they decorativeness precocious schoolhouse oregon secondary education?

This imaginativeness is hardly dystopian. Iowa already has a superior encephalon drain (the 10th-worst percent quality successful the state betwixt the fig of assemblage graduates we nutrient and the fig of graduates surviving successful the state). We can’t cognize each who person near oregon decided not to come, though determination are anecdotes aplenty. But we bash cognize that radical worth their freedoms and their close to aesculapian care.

We underestimate the effects of an termination prohibition astatine our peril. Throw that 1 chromatic and those waves — they volition deed shores we ne'er imagined.