The state of Iowa could directly send taxpayer dollars to anti-abortion pregnancy centers without using a third-party administrator under a new proposal in the Legislature.
Republican lawmakers established the More Options for Maternal Support, or MOMS, program in 2022 to fund anti-abortion pregnancy centers. Last year, theyincreased the funding to a total of $2 million.
But the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services still has not distributed money to pregnancy centers because it has failed twice to find an organization that fulfills the law’s requirements for an administrator.
Rep. Jon Dunwell, R-Newton, filed a bill Wednesday that would give the department more flexibility. It would strike the requirement for the administrator to have three years of experience in Iowa, and it would allow the state to administer to program until officials hire a suitable nonprofit.
“We’ve got moms who need help, that need resources, that we could be helping out,” Dunwell said. “And I don’t want the narrowness of a bill to get in the way of that.”
The bill would also remove a current requirement for DHHS to publish program administrator and pregnancy center criteria online.
Republican lawmakers have sought to support anti-abortion pregnancy centers, also known as crisis pregnancy centers or pregnancy resource centers, as they have taken action to ban most abortions in the state. The “fetal heartbeat” law that bans most abortions as early as six weeks of pregnancy can’t be enforced while the Iowa Supreme Court decides if it violates the Iowa Constitution.
Mazie Stilwell, a lobbyist for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Iowa, said the MOMS program is a “complete failure,” and the bill would give it less transparency and accountability.
“Instead of taking the loss and going home, the state is trying to reformat the program to make it administered in-house,” she said. “This is a continued waste of taxpayer dollars, it is extremely disingenuous to patients who are seeking actual health care, and it’s really a risk to their privacy.”
Under Iowa law, the pregnancy centers that could be eligible to receive state funding must be nonprofits that promote childbirth instead of abortion, and can provide pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, baby supplies, parenting advice, and more.
Abortion rights supporters and Democrats have criticized anti-abortion pregnancy centers for deceiving pregnant people into thinking they could get real medical care. Some women have said they had life-threatening ectopic pregnancies that were misdiagnosed at anti-abortion pregnancy centers and resulted in the need for emergency surgery.
Democrats have also criticized Iowa’s program for being modeled after a similar program in Texas, which had to stop sending money to a pregnancy center nonprofit that allegedly used state money to pay for limo rides, a smoke shop and hemp production.
Iowa Republican lawmakers have said they included safeguards against fraud in the law.
