Below is an open letter to Iowa’s Republican representatives and senators regarding HF2563, a bill introduced in the House that would prohibit the delivery of abortion medication to Iowa. After emailing the contents below to all of Iowa’s Republican representatives and only receiving two responses under the veiled guise of ‘thanks for contacting me,’ I felt it was only prudent to share my sentiments on a larger platform.

Dear Representatives, I’m sure you’ve heard everything in the book from proponents of abortion access on why abortion bans, or bills to limit abortion access, are wrong. 

“What if it were your child who needed an abortion?”

“What if we had had invasive laws dictating what men could do with their reproductive organs?” 

“Abortion is a safe, secure, respected medical procedure, safer and more secure than birth.”

So, I’m sure nothing I say to you here will change your mind if you’re (1) a Republican, and (2) you’ve heard all the above phrases, or similar phrases, before. Even so, I am still choosing to encourage you to NO on HF2563. I am choosing to express my ability to contact you, and, as an elected official, I expect you to listen (read) to what I want to say. 

HF2563, while not the direct total abortion ban that died in subcommittee, is an indirect attempt to limit Iowans access to lifesaving and medically safe abortion medication. It would prevent abortion medication from being delivered anywhere within the state of Iowa. To familiarize everyone with the abortion medication in question, which I’m not totally convinced a plurality of Republican representatives understand, it consists of the mifepristone and misoprostol. Taken within days of each other, mifepristone ends a pregnancy and misoprostol induces a miscarriage, preventing infection from setting in. 

This medication is completely safe, safer than childbirth itself. Any limits to abortion, whether direct or indirect, are unkind. Not only are they unkind, but they are also unhelpful, not to mention a total waste of Iowans’ time. You are only making it more of a hindrance to receive abortion care rather than actually doing anything to make your constituents’ lives easier. You’re giving them more hoops to jump through when they already jump through enough.  

I’m a person who is utterly and extremely pro-choice, or pro-reproductive rights, but I am still interested in listening to other people and their points of view, and I recently interviewed a Catholic nun, and we talked about feminism in the Catholic church. She told me that abortion has always been a very important issue to the church, and she struggles with identifying with feminism when abortion is widely supported among feminist-led organizations. Again, I don’t agree with her, but she has just as much right to her opinion as I do to mine. If her Catholic community wants to advocate for anti-abortion principles, she is free to do so. No one in her community is required to receive an abortion. But I, not a member of the Catholic church, should not have to adhere to religious values which are not my own. So, no area of government should be focused on sponsoring anti-abortion bills. 

This bill is unkind. You are willingly advocating for a bill that makes abortion more difficult to access. You are putting your collective Republican nose in others’ business where it has no business being. 

Also, my Catholic nun interviewee made another point to me. She said that any political party that isn’t advocating for real-time measures to support communities, children, mothers, and expectant mothers is not really pro-life. You can listen to the episode yourself if you’d like. 

So, unless you’re sponsoring and pushing for bills that are aiming to limit maternal mortality — which the U.S. has highest number of in any developed country — families living in poverty who are hungry, and healthcare access, just know that I, and a Catholic nun in Minnesota, do not believe that you’re pro-life, or that you’re serving your state in any real way. 

Sincerely, a Drake student.