Brenna Bird, the Republican attorney general of Iowa, has blocked the state from paying for emergency contraception and, in some cases, abortions for victims of sexual assault. Some victims’ rights activists have criticized the action. The right to an abortion has long been a sensitive and divided topic in the United States.
Currently, the state is required by law to pay medical expenses for sexual assault victims. According to the AP, these costs include things like the price of forensic examinations and STD treatment in Iowa.
When Democrat Tom Miller was Iowa’s attorney general, the state’s victim compensation fund covered the so-called morning-after pill, Plan B, and other contraceptive methods.
Those payments have been suspended while a review of victim services is being carried out, according to a representative for Republican Attorney General Brenna Bird, who won the race in November by defeating Miller’s bid for reelection.
“As a part of her top-down, bottom-up audit of victim assistance, Attorney General Bird is carefully evaluating whether this is an appropriate use of public funds,” Bird Press Secretary Alyssa Brouillet said in a statement.
“Until that review is complete, payment of these pending claims will be delayed.”
Planned Parenthood North Central States CEO Ruth Richardson called the action “deplorable and reprehensible” and denounced it.
After a Texas judge on Friday blocked the approval of the abortion drug mifepristone, Bird made his decision. According to court records, the Joe Biden administration has one week to appeal the 67-page verdict by US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Texas.
The decision was rendered by US District Judge Thomas O. Rice in Washington, D.C., practically simultaneously with an opposing ruling.
About a year ago, the US Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade and lowered the bar for abortion access statewide.
Abortion rights have faced multiple legal hurdles, and the matter is still a contentious one in American politics. President Joseph Biden stated that his administration would appeal the Texas ruling.
Sandi Tibbetts Murphy, who served as director of the victim assistance division under Miller, said, “My concern is for the victims of sexual assault, who, with no real notice, are now finding themselves either unable to access needed treatment and services, or are now being forced to pay out of their own pocket for those services, when this was done at no fault of their own,” she said.
