HEATHEN OF THE CORN
House File 187 — Anti-vax, Pro Ignorance, and Pro Cancer.
House File 187, by Shipley, is a bill designed to increase human papillomavirus infections which is known to cause increased risk of cervical cancer in women. This bill strips information on the availability of HPV vaccines from health and human development curricula in public schools.
House File 187, by Shipley, is a bill designed to increase human papillomavirus infections — an illness known to cause increased risk of cervical cancer in women. This bill strips information on the availability of HPV vaccines from health and human development curricula in public schools. If it passes, it will ensure that more young Iowans remain ignorant of a simple, safe, and effective way to prevent a life threatening disease later in their lives.
Most human beings with at least a modicum of empathy and compassion want to decrease cancer rates and preventable infections. But not Jeff Shipley, the Representative from Van Buren. He believes that if teenagers learn about the HPV vaccine, it will make them all want to run out and have sex. That nonsequitur fails even the slightest scrutiny. Science makes it abundantly clear that knowledge of the HPV vaccine does not increase anyone’s desire for sex. But Jeff Shipley doesn’t know or care, as long as he can throw another slab of culture war meat to his hungry voter base.
Current law requires that the human growth and development or health curriculum provided to students enrolled in school districts, accredited nonpublic schools, and charter schools be both research-based and age-appropriate. Within those limitations, current law also requires that the human growth and development or health curriculum include information regarding the availability of a vaccine to prevent human papilloma virus. The bill strikes this requirement.
House File 190 — The Cruelty Is the Point
House File 190 seeks to remove gender identity as a protected class under the Iowa Civil Rights Act. If passed it will legalize anti-trans discrimination in employment, wages, public accommodations, housing, education, and credit practices.
This is a cruel, heartless bill being pushed by cruel heartless people. We cannot let it be signed into Iowa law. Contact your legislators immediately and tell them to vote this down.
For purposes of Code chapter 216, the bill removes gender identity as a protected class and defines “sex” to mean a person’s biological sex as either male or female.
More Bills, good and bad.
More bills of interest filed today and yesterday. Until the first funnel on February 10 (nine days from now), it is a struggle to keep up. To get the information out to you quickly, I’m going to just list each bill with a link, a sentence or two of my own commentary, and a brief description from the legislature website.
House File 182, by the House Education Committee.
An Act relating to institutions of higher education governed by the state board of regents, including requiring the institutions to submit reports to the general assembly related to terms associated with courses offered by the institutions’ colleges of education and establishing an interim study committee to evaluate practitioner preparation programs offered by the institutions…
This bill allows the General Assembly to micromanage education-related classes at the state universities. The list of terms is basically everything conservatives like to call ‘woke.” If it passes, Christian Nationalists will have a convenient list of everyone they need to purge to make sure Iowa children are only taught GOP-approved ideas and beliefs.
House File 188, by Boulton and Knox.
1 An Act relating to hate crimes, and providing penalties.
This bill defines “hate crime” and requires that any hate crime be punished one degree higher than the underlying crime. I’m all for this one and hope it passes.
House File 180 by the Committee on Education
This bill prohibits school districts and charter schools from facilitating any accommodation that is intended to affirm a student’s gender identity, if that gender identity is different than the sex listed on the student’s official birth certificate, without the written consent of the student’s parent or guardian; encouraging or coercing any student to withhold information from the student’s parent or guardian related to the student’s gender identity;
This bill is just fine if a student’s parents are accepting and supportive. But this bill would out the students to parents who are not accepting and supportive. That is one reason why so many LGBTQ students consider suicide and make up the majority of all homeless children.
House File 169, by Golding.
The bill requires absentee ballots to be received in the office of the county commissioner of elections before the close of business on the day before the election…The bill prohibits the special precinct election board from tabulating absentee ballots in excess of the number reported received by the commissioner as of the close of business on the day before the election…
This bill makes it harder to vote for no good reason. It just means more people who vote by mail must return their ballots the day before the polls open or their votes won’t be counted. Conservatives know that their base is tightly motivated. If they can prevent a few percent of everybody else’s votes from counting they will keep winning at the majority’s expense.
House File 166by Golding.
An Act relating to vaccines, including modifying provisions related to a minor’s legal capacity to give consent to the provision of vaccines and provisions related to the instruction provided to students enrolled in school districts, accredited nonpublic schools, and charter schools related to the human papilloma virus
This bill strips students of their legal capacity to act and give consent for the Human Papillomavirus vaccine and similar medical treatments and related services. It deletes all related information from their public school curricula . Apparently, ignorance and anti-vax science denial are preferable to cancer and disease free adults.
An Act relating to voter registration activities at schools.
This bill provides two opportunities for seventeen year old students to register to vote if they will be eighteen by election day. It is their right and duty and if we want a functioning democracy we must encourage them to do so.
A Resolution regarding foundational principles of theAmerican form of government.
This resolution leans hard into Christian privilege and nationalism. Read the whole thing. It’s authors don’t understand the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution, or American history.
The First Abortion Bill of the 2023 Legislative Session
The first bill related to abortion was just filed in the Iowa Legislature yesterday. House File 146 would make it a felony for anyone to provide abortion pills in Iowa.
The first bill related to abortion was just filed in the Iowa Legislature yesterday. House File 146 would make it a felony for anyone to provide abortion pills in Iowa.
https://iowastartingline.com/2023/01/30/house-republicans-move-to-ban-abortion-pills-in-iowa/
An Act prohibiting certain actions relating to abortifacient 2 drugs in the state, and providing penalties.
Statement on School Vouchers
Currently the Iowa legislature is considering a bill spearheaded by Gov. Reynolds that would allow for a voucher-style program that sets aside public tax dollars to be used to pay tuition and fees at private educational institutions. The republican majority has taken to calling this policy “school choice” and “providing more options for parents”, but this choice of education does not seem to reflect the situation in the state.
Currently the Iowa legislature is considering a bill spearheaded by Gov. Reynolds that would allow for a voucher-style program that sets aside public tax dollars to be used to pay tuition and fees at private educational institutions. The republican majority has taken to calling this policy “school choice” and “providing more options for parents”, but this choice of education does not seem to reflect the situation in the state. Rather than provide more choice for parents this bill aims to take funds from public schools and funnel them to private schools and, in particular, religious schools. The wall separating church and state has been under assault in the past years by Christian Nationalists and this is simply the latest iteration of their theocratic ideology. Make no mistake, the goal of this bill is to funnel as many public dollars into unaccountable and sectarian institutions as possible in order to prop up and legitimize religious teaching of young people in the state of Iowa. This means that Iowa tax dollars will go directly into the coffers of religious institutions, institutions that are exempt from human and civil rights laws, disability access, equitable admissions processes, and even can be used to fund political activity.
The choice that is touted by the bills supporters is a false one since the only real options given are specifically Christian schools in the state of Iowa. Less than half a dozen schools that are registered as private institutions in the state of Iowa are secular, less than 6 out of 183 private institutions. That is less than 4% of schools in only two areas of the state, Central and Eastern-Central Iowa, being secular and with mission statements that are inclusive to all students. Religious schools and institutions, whose very foundation was and is based on the right to exclude non-religious, or in many cases, non-white, children from gaining access to education remain the bulk of “options” for students.
This is a complete violation of the foundational ideas that are laid out in the constitution, both nationally and in the state of Iowa. Section 3 of the Iowa Constitution: “…nor shall any person be compelled to attend any place of worship, pay tithes, taxes, or other rates for building or repairing places of worship, or the maintenance of any minister, or ministry.” Pushing public dollars into the upkeep and maintenance of these sectarian schools is a direct violation of that separation of church and state and should be seen as such. This is much less a side effect of these voucher programs but actual point as evidenced by testimony from the bills supporters as well as political contributions and public statements of religious institutions.
The voucher scheme being considered is nothing less than Christian Nationalism come to Iowa in the false language of choice and freedom, the effects of which will be an explicit state endorsement of religious indoctrination.
Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers reject the idea of a voucher system that funnels money to unaccountable religious institutions and stands for the separation of church and state.
By Jason Bennell
Press Secretary
Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers