Comment on Iowa Senate committee advances amendment against abortion

DES MOINES — Senate Republicans, on a party-line committee vote, approved a resolution Thursday giving Iowa voters a chance to amend the state constitution to specify there is no fundamental right to abortion or public funding of the procedure.Sen. Jake Chapman, R-Adel, told members of the Senate State Government Committee that Senate Joint Resolution 21 is needed to correct a judicial ”overreach” by the Iowa Supreme Court that “usurped” legislative authority by essentially creating a right that did not exist before the court’s 5-2 ruling to strike down an abortion limit in 2018.“What we had was five unelected judges with the power of the gavel to rewrite our state constitution,” Chapman said before the 10-5 committee vote.