Iowa Refuses to Cover the Cost of Abortions and Contraceptives for Rape Victims

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The Attorney General’s Office of Iowa has stopped paying for emergency contraception (medicine to stop you from getting pregnant if something happened like a sexual assault) and, in certain rare occasions, abortions (ending the pregnancy). This decision was not accepted by people who help victims.

The law in Iowa says that it has to pay for a victim of sexual assault who gets medical help. This includes any costs to do with legaal exams and treatments for illnesses related to the attack, like paying for the ‘morning after pill’. This was started by Tom Miller, an attorney from Iowa.

The Republican Attorney General Brenna Bird who won the election in November has now suspended payments to victims of crimes, according to a spokeswoman they talked to from the Des Moines Register. They’re doing this to review victim services.

Attorney General Bird and her team are deciding if paying for victim assistance claims is a good use of public funds. Until they can figure that out, payment for these types of claims won’t be accepted just yet.

Victim advocates were really surprised with this announcement, Ruth Richardson from Planned Parenthood North Central States even called it “wrong and mean.”

The ability to get an abortion in the USA has been affected by two court decisions that were released close together. In response, Bird made a decision about it. For now, people still can use the abortion medicine approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2000.

Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, chosen by President Donald Trump, told federal authorities not to accept mifepristone. But almost at the same time, Judge Thomas O. Rice working for President Barack Obama said the opposite.

The order from Texas and the counter-order received from the US government at the same time showed how important this drug was, almost a year after the Supreme Court’s decision to limit people’s access to abortion. President Joe Biden then said he will try to fight against that ruling from Texas.

In Iowa, money for helping victims of crimes comes from people who were convicted for breaking the law. When someone is sexually assaulted, the state has a fund to cover medical tests and treatments to help them from getting diseases. This fund does not cover birth control or any risks connected to getting pregnant.

Sandi Tibbetts Murphy was the person in charge of helping victims who were hurt by crime. Her job had a policy that required emergency contraception, like birth control, to be paid for with money from the fund. In special cases, they even used the fund to pay for abortions done by rape victims.

She said that it’s not fair for people who have been victims of sexual assault to pay out of their own pocket for medical treatments and services they need, when they didn’t do anything wrong. This story was published on April 8, 2023 and corrected on April 9 by noting that U.S. District Judge Thomas O. Rice is in Washington State, not D.C.