Iowa State Auditor Rob Sand said he’s concerned about the amount of time the Iowa attorney general’s office is taking to review its controversial pause on paying for rape victims’ emergency contraception reimbursements.
Attorney General Brenna Bird, a Republican, paused reimbursements for emergency contraception under the Crime Victims' Compensation program when she took office in January of last year.
Her office said her policy, along with other crime victims programs, has been under review ever since to determine whether it is an "appropriate use of public funds," but so far has declined to release any of its findings.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Sand, a Democrat, expressed concern about the length of the review and Bird’s choice to use the word "audit" to describe her review of the policy.
"This is her decision on day one to quit paying for emergency contraception for sexual assault survivors," Sand said. "And the word salad around that decision, and around what is going on is nothing more than a way to reduce the clarity of that fact."
Sand said Bird’s office has not asked his office to conduct an audit of the payments, and said he doesn’t understand why the emergency contraception reimbursement policy was targeted for review.
"When we conduct audits, we put our attention to areas that have been highlighted for us as problem areas or areas that we believe are high risk. Paying for emergency contraception is not on either of those lists," he said.
Reproductive rights advocates have spoken out against Bird's decision to pause emergency contraception payments, saying it impacts vulnerable Iowans who have been the victims of sexual assault.
“It’s absolutely deplorable that sexual assault survivors in Iowa have gone more than a year without state-covered emergency contraceptives—all because of politics,” Mazie Stilwell, a lobbyist for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Iowa, said in a statement on Tuesday.
In a statement, Alyssa Brouillet, Bird's press secretary, also described Planned Parenthood and Sand's concerns as politically motivated and said they are "flat wrong."
Bird's office is in the "final stages of the audit," she said.
"It is a shame that the Auditor is playing politics with a critical audit of victim services and blasting misinformation to boost his own profile. We will publicly release the report once it is final," Brouillet said.
