Inflatable IUD tours Iowa to promote access to birth control (2024)

CEDAR RAPIDS — Elected officials and reproductive rights advocates stood next to a 20-foot inflatable intrauterine device used to prevent pregnancy during a news conference Monday in downtown Cedar Rapids.

The inflatable IUD, named "Freeda Womb" and fresh from an appearance at Lollapalooza in Chicago, has toured the country as part of a national campaign organized by Americans for Contraception to protect the right to contraception amid a growing partisan clash over reproductive rights in the wake of a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning a federally protected right to abortion.

Cedar Rapids-area lawmakers criticized Iowa Republicans for not supporting legislation at the state and federal levels introduced by Democrats to codify the right to access and obtain contraception. Republicans, who said they support adult women’s access to over-the-counter birth control, said the provisions were too broad.

“Republican senators stood against our right to make private, personal family planning decisions for ourselves,” Sen. Liz Bennett, D-Cedar Rapids, said at the event.

The Democratic lawmakers also criticized Iowa Republicans for supporting a bill to criminalize the death of an “unborn person” that did not provide any protections for embryos created via in vitro fertilization.

Critics warned the proposed legislation would have made IVF illegal because, as part of the process, extra embryos are sometimes frozen, stored or discarded. Sen. Brad Zaun, a Republican from Urbandale and chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, did not advance the bill specifically because of questions about its potential impact on IVF.

During debate in the Iowa House, where it passed the chamber with only Republican support, GOP lawmakers insisted the bill would not impact fertility treatments, and that its focus specifically was on the crime of nonconsensual termination of a pregnancy.

“More fear mongering from Iowa Democrats desperate to distract from the failed economic policies of the Biden-Harris administration,” Iowa House Republicans Communications Director Melissa Saitz said in a statement to The Gazette.

Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds has said she is “deeply committed to” supporting strong families, which includes supporting pregnant mothers, promoting adoption and the importance of fatherhood, and protecting in vitro fertilization.

Prescription-free birth control has also long been a top legislative priority of Reynolds. But the issue has divided legislative Republicans, despite support from a strong majority of Iowans.

Democrats, though, warned of looming threats to birth control and IVF. Advocates opposed to abortion rights have said they will press for a law banning abortions at the moment of conception, which could jeopardize some forms of birth control and IVF.

“Reproductive choice is being threatened all across the country,” Bennett said.

U.S. Senate Republicans, including Iowa’s Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, earlier this summer blocked Democratic-led efforts to provide nationwide protections for birth control access and federal protections for in vitro fertilization.

Ernst and Senate Republicans offered their own legislation that would ban states from getting access to Medicaid funding if they bar IVF services.

In statement, Ernst accused Democrats of “a shameless campaign of fearmongering and scare tactics.” She said she unequivocally supports IVF, and in June attempted to pass legislation that would allow the Food and Drug Administration to more quickly approve applications for oral contraceptive drugs without a prescription.

The bill would prohibit over-the-counter purchase for minors and would not grant the speedy approval process to emergency contraception like Plan B.

Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, of Marion, introduced companion legislation in the House. Grassley and Iowa GOP U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Ottumwa, signed on as co-sponsors of the legislation in the House and Senate.

Democrats say that oral contraceptives are not the best form of birth control for everyone and that access to the full range of contraceptive methods, devices and medications is important, including for teenagers. The age of consent in Iowa is 16.

“Contrary to Democrat fearmongering, contraception and in vitro fertilization are legal in every state, and I support nationwide access to both,” Grassley said in a statement.

Several states, though, have restricted access to contraception by defining abortion broadly enough to include some forms of contraception, and allowing health care providers to refuse to provide services related to contraception based on their beliefs.

Democrats also argue legislation is needed because the U.S. Supreme Court cannot be trusted to uphold its precedent on protecting the use of contraceptives in the 1965 case Griswold v. Connecticut. They note that when the court invalidated federal abortion rights in 2022, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote separately that the court “should reconsider” other precedents like Griswold.

“We must recognize contraception access as fundamental rights,” Iowa Family Planning Council Executive Director Allison Smith said. “No matter where we live, our circ*mstances, or economic status, every single one of us deserves to make the best health care choices for ourselves and have the freedom to determine our own life path.”

The Family Planning Council of Iowa receives federal Title X funding and contracts with clinics across the state to provide family planning and contraceptive resources.

Smith pointed to studies linking contraception to improved maternal and child health outcomes by enabling women to plan, delay and space pregnancies. Research also suggests that access to birth control at an earlier age improves employment and financial prospects for women and their families.

Removing barriers to contraception and aiding in pregnancy planning also leads to fewer health disparities and reduces child poverty and unplanned pregnancies, saving taxpayer dollars, Smith said.

State Sen. Zach Wahls, D-Coralville, introduced The Right to Contraception Act along with Bennett in the Iowa Senate.

“This legislation is critically important, and the failure of our elected officials in Washington (D.C.) to protect contraception access is why we need to pass our state version of the Right to Contraception Act as soon as possible,” Wahls said.

Democrats have made access to abortion and reproductive care a central issue in the upcoming November election.

“This isn’t just about preventing pregnancy; it’s about managing health conditions like endometriosis, PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome), and menstrual migraines,” state Rep. Sami Scheetz, D-Cedar Rapids, said. “It’s about ensuring everyone has the freedom to make informed decisions about their reproductive health.”

Erin Murphy of The Gazette Des Moines Bureau contributed to this report.