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Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds has backed a plan to allow residents who are 18 and older to receive birth control from a pharmacist without a prescription. The Republican-controlled Senate last month approved legislation to permit it.

But the bill is moving through the statehouse as a rift is growing in the Republican Party over birth control, with some anti-abortion groups opposing access. Similar legislation, to expand or protect birth control access, has passed in both liberal and conservative states in recent years. But with the Supreme Courts June decision ending a federal right to abortion, states have taken on reproductive health care, and some conservatives are increasingly tying abortion and birth control.

Mary Ziegler, an abortion law historian, said Republicans used to be able to take a stance on either abortion policy or contraception policy without the issues intersecting.

My sense in general within the anti-abortion movement and I think to some degree within the GOP, too theres been a shift to the right on all of that, and more open opposition to contraception than weve seen in years past, she said. To me its much more eye-catching to see a Republican governor actually being this supportive of contraception, than it would have been a few years ago, just because I think theres been a general shift toward saying, Contraception is bad, too.

Some Republicans are working to clarify that they are not opposed to contraception. In Oklahoma, a pair of anti-abortion Republican lawmakers introduced a bill earlier this year that clarifies that state laws on abortion shall not prohibit or restrict contraceptive drugs, surgeries or other treatments by authorized health care providers. Lawmakers in the Republican-led state Senate overwhelmingly passed the measure last month.

Being pro-family also means allowing Oklahomans the freedom to plan when to start or grow their family, sponsor Sen. Jessica Garvin said in a statement at the time of the bills passage. When people have access to contraception, they can pursue their goals and build healthy families. Its a right we all deserve.

Ziegler said opposition by anti-abortion groups toward birth control has become more pronounced in recent election cycles, especially after former President Barack Obama included contraception mandates in the Affordable Care Act that spurred legal action. She noted as more Christian right groups and anti-abortion organizers strengthened their financial resources and strategy, there was more invested in claims about religious liberty and its connection to birth control.

That was when you began to see more of a tendency to say, Were OK opposing contraception, because people of faith have these religious objections to it, because they believe its an abortifacient, she said.

A spokesperson for Students for Life of America told The 19th that the organization does not take a position against or for birth control, but it opposes federal funding to abortion providers who use birth control programs to market life-ending drugs, devices, and procedures.

Title X funds should be invested in family care, not family-ending vendors who misuse federal funds to support their abortion businesses, Kristi Hamrick, vice president of media and policy, said in an email.

Ziegler said it all indicates a divide among some GOP lawmakers and some anti-abortion groups on contraception, and its still unclear where its heading.

This is kind of a fork in the road for the movement, and I think, for the GOP, she said.

At least 17 states and the District of Columbia allow pharmacists to provide contraceptive care, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a nonpartisan research and policy organization focused on reproductive and sexual health. Many of these laws have been passed since 2016, according to Elizabeth Nash, who recently tracked state policy for Guttmacher and now works for the federal government on contraceptive access. The details vary, though, and there are practical questions now about access and education to the public.

Its one thing to pass the policy and say youve passed the policy, she said. The other piece is the implementation part.

The Iowa bill to expand birth control has been years in the making. Reynolds first introduced the measure in 2019, but it did not have enough support amid opposition from local anti-abortion groups.

The proposal this year was added at the last minute to an unrelated bill about EpiPens. The provision noted that self-administered hormonal contraceptives include an oral hormonal contraceptive, a hormonal vaginal ring and a hormonal contraceptive patch. It specifies that it does not include any drug intended to induce an abortion.

Before a 45-3 vote, there was no debate on the bill. Iowa Sen. Jeff Edler, the Republican managing the bills passage, briefly said on the chamber floor that it was another bill that continues to expand the access of health care to Iowans.

But once again, its unclear if the bill will pass. Since advancing out of the state Senate, Republicans in the House have proposed amendments to the legislation that might complicate its chances of getting signed into law, including one that requires pharmacists who dispense birth control to share misinformation about abortion.

And once again, local anti-abortion groups have registered opposition to the bill, including the Family Leader, a politically powerful conservative group, and Pulse Life Advocates, previously known as the anti-abortion group Iowans for Life.

A spokesperson for Reynolds did not respond to a request for an interview about the bill.

The bills progression since leaving the Senate last month has been discouraging to Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, a Democrat.

It really seemed like, Hey, were maybe going to do something that the people have been asking for and isnt that great? A nice change of pace, she said. And its really disappointing to hear about all these things the House is attaching to this legislation.

Iowa has also shifted more conservative in recent election cycles, including under the leadership of Reynolds. She has asked a more conservative state Supreme Court to reconsider a six-week abortion ban that she first signed in 2018 but has been on hold.

Separately, newly elected Republican Attorney General Brenna Bird confirmed to The Des Moines Register that her office recently put on hold a long-standing practice under the previous Democratic AG to pay for emergency contraception for victims of sexual assault. In rare cases, that also included abortions.

Trone Garriott said if Republicans reduce reproductive health through other forms of policy, its hard to balance that out with their efforts on birth control.

Overall, the landscape in Iowa is pretty bleak right now when it comes to reproductive care, and theres all kinds of things that are being passed that are discouraging people from moving to our state, discouraging young people from building their lives here and discouraging health care practitioners from coming here, she said. So its a small thing thats helpful, but overall, were just seeing a lot of bad policy thats having a negative impact.

This story was originally published April 12, 2023, by The 19th.

Link:
A rift is growing in the Republican Party over birth control - The Connecticut Mirror

Jonathan Capehart:

Absolutely.

And I'm going to take issue. I'm going to answer your question and take issue with what David said. I disagree that abortion is an issue that isn't top of mind.

Maybe, if you ask specifically about abortion, but when you wrap it into the overall threats to liberty, attack on liberty, voting rights, abortion rights, and other things that are happening in school libraries, that people look at that, look at what's happening in Florida, looking at what happened with the Texas decision, and see, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, this is not what we want.

And so, yes, this is a great issue for Democrats. But what we saw in Kansas over the summer, what we saw in Wisconsin just a couple of weeks ago, is that this is quickly not becoming a nonpartisan issue. This is becoming an issue where women who are Democrats, independents and Republicans, and particularly the Republicans might not say a whole lot, but they make their voices heard at the ballot box.

And we have seen it in two places, and I think we will continue to see that, which is why Governor DeSantis, hiding under the cover of darkness, signing in a six-week abortion ban, might play well in the only place where the red wave hit last November, but it's not going to play well if he is the candidate if he is a candidate for president or any Republican running for president in 2024.

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Brooks and Capehart on the 2024 Republican campaign - PBS NewsHour

RALEIGH, N.C. North Carolina on Monday became the 40th state to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, the latest sign of how Republican opposition to the health measure has weakened more than a decade after President Barack Obama signed it into law.

Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, signed legislation expanding the states Medicaid program during a sunny afternoon ceremony on the lawn of the Executive Mansion, days after the Republican-controlled legislature gave final approval to the measure. He was surrounded by patients, advocates and some of the same Republican leaders who had previously blocked expansion in the state.

The bill will expand Medicaid to adults who make up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $41,000for a family of four. State officials say the expansion will cover an estimated 600,000 people. It will take effect when the state adopts a budget, likely by June, Mr. Cooper said in an interview before the signing ceremony.

Today is a historic step toward a healthier North Carolina, the governor declared before signing the measure. When areporterpressed him on when the expansion would take effect, he said, Its only a question of when, not if.

It has been nearly 11 years since the Supreme Court ruled that states did not have to expand Medicaid the government health insurance program for low-income people under the Affordable Care Act. Nearly half the states opted out. More recently, progressives have helped to expand Medicaid in seven states all of them with either Republican-controlled or divided governments by putting the question directly to voters; in November, South Dakota adopted Medicaid expansion via the ballot box.

But getting Republican elected officials to abandon their opposition to expanding the program has not been easy. The last state where a Republican-controlled legislature voted to expand Medicaid was Virginia, in 2018. The governor at the time was a Democrat, Ralph Northam.

The battle over Medicaid has been particularly intense in North Carolina. Supporters of expansionconducted hundreds of Moral Mondays protests at the State Capitol. In 2014, the Republican mayor of a town that lost its hospital walked all the way to Washington to build support for expansion.

Mondays bill signing leaves just 10 states all with divided or Republican leadership, and most of them in the South that have yet to expand Medicaid. Advocatessay they now have their sights set on Alabama, where Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, can expand her states program with her own authority.

In North Carolina, there are various reasons for Republicans recent change of heart. Much of the opposition in the state and elsewhere has beenbothideological and partisan a reflection of Republicans deep distaste for Mr. Obama. Butit is now clear that the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, is here to stay. Republicans in Washington have been unable to repeal the law and appear to have largely given up fighting it, helping to pave the way for expansion in North Carolina.

The argument that this is somehow an endorsement of Obamacare is losing a lot of political currency, even among conservatives, said Frederick Isasi, the executive director of Families USA, a health care advocacy group based in Washington.

Hospitals, especially struggling rural ones, are eager for the extra revenue that Medicaid reimbursement will bring. The federal government picks up 90 percent of thecosts of reimbursement under the expansion, and in North Carolina, hospitals will pay the other 10 percent. The state has revamped its Medicaid program, moving it from a fee-for-service program to one that relies on managed care a long-sought goal of Republicans.

This has been a long day coming, but its been as a result of a lot of reforms, Tim Moore, the speaker of the states House of Representatives and a Republican, said during the signing ceremony. The changes, he said, allowed us to be in the position that were in today to be able to expand this coverage.

For Mr. Cooper, who is in his second term and has been mentioned as a possible future Democratic candidate for Senate or even president, the bill signing was a significant victory. He sought to expand Medicaid when he first took office in 2017, and Republicans sued in federal court to stop him from doing it.

The push for expansion picked up steam last year, when the states House and Senate approved separate measures. But the two chambers were unable to reconcile differences.

The signing ceremony on Monday was at turns poignant and celebratory. Cassandra Brooks, who operates Little Believers Academy, a day care center in the Raleigh area, choked back tears as she recalled two of her teachers who had died, she said, because theycould not afford health care.

They were excellent early childhood teachers who didnt have health insurance and passed away due to preventable health conditions, she said. She cast the expansion measure as a boon to small businesses that operate on thin margins and cannot afford to offer their employees coverage.

Heres toMedicaid expansion in North Carolina, she said. Heres to supporting small business in North Carolina. Heres to continued growth in North Carolina. I believe in North Carolina.

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North Carolina Expands Medicaid After Republicans Abandon Their ... - The New York Times

For proponents of capital punishment, the scarcity of execution drugs has become a problem. Pharmaceutical companies generally want their medications to be used to save lives, not deliberately kill people, so theyve taken steps to prevent state officials from using their products in state-sanctioned lethal injections.

This has led some states where officials are especially eager to put people to death to give fresh looks to deadly methods that the United States had previously left behind. As the Associated Press reported, one of the nations reddest states has now done exactly that.

Republican Gov. Brad Little signed a bill allowing execution by firing squad, making Idaho the latest state to turn to older methods of capital punishment amid a nationwide shortage of lethal-injection drugs. The Legislature passed the measure March 20 with a veto-proof majority. Under it, firing squads will be used only if the state cannot obtain the drugs needed for lethal injections.

The AP, citing information from the Death Penalty Information Center, added that four other red states Mississippi, Utah, Oklahoma, and South Carolina also have laws allowing firing squads if other execution methods are unavailable, though South Carolinas law is currently on hold until ongoing litigation is resolved.

The shortage has prompted other states in recent years to revive older methods of execution. Only Mississippi, Utah, Oklahoma, and South Carolina have laws allowing firing squads if other execution methods are unavailable, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Idaho, in other words, is joining a small club.

The APs report added:

Idaho Sen. Doug Ricks, a Republican who co-sponsored that states firing squad bill, told his fellow senators Monday (3/20) that the states difficulty in finding lethal injection drugs could continue indefinitely, that he believes death by firing squad is humane, and that the bill would help ensure the rule of law is carried out. But Sen. Dan Foreman, also a Republican, called firing-squad executions beneath the dignity of the state of Idaho. They would traumatize the executioners, the witnesses and the people who clean up afterward, he said.

Theres a broader significance to this debate that extends well beyond the Gem State.

Over the course of generations, theres been a slow effort to make state-sanctioned executions more civilized. Theres been an evolution of sorts, from axes to guillotines. Then there were nooses, followed by firing squads. This gave way to electric chairs, and finally, lethal injections.

The underlying idea was to make the killing of human beings less gruesome and more sterile, less violent and more peaceful. Proponents of the executions could take some solace in this evolution, as if the process of making the killings less ghastly somehow added a degree of legitimacy to the larger endeavor.

The new state measure in Idaho serves as a reminder: The arrow does not always move in a straight line. Sometimes, officials take steps backwards, indifferent to the goals of sterility.

To be sure, there are often incidents in which police officers shoot civilians, but capital punishment offers a qualitatively different dynamic. Officials in Idaho envision a system going forward in which the state will put an unarmed civilian who is no longer a threat in front of guns, at which point officials will open fire until the unarmed civilian is dead.

This wont be the result of an unpredictable confrontation; it will be a vaguely sanitized shooting.

I appreciate the fact that a GOP state senator said firing-squad executions are beneath the dignity of the state of Idaho, but the complaint was incomplete: This is beneath the dignity of anyone, anywhere.

Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MSNBC political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "The Impostors: How Republicans Quit Governing and Seized American Politics."

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Republican governor signs firing squad execution bill into law - MSNBC

Lawmakers backed a plan Monday that proponents call a necessary first step toward better understanding persistent homelessness, which out-of-town legislators get an up-close view of while in downtown Atlanta for the three-month session.

But critics argue the Senate bill steps on the authority of the local officials grappling with the complicated issue in their communities and say it will indirectly criminalize homelessness and poverty.

The bill passed with a 99-to-76 vote that largely fell along party lines after a lengthy and emotional debate about how best to compassionately address homelessness. The Senate then gave it final passage late Monday with a 36-to-20 vote that included a few Democrats, sending it to the governors desk.

When I come here from Rome and I get off of the interstate, I can always count on someone coming up to my car and asking me for money, said Rep. Katie Dempsey, a Rome Republican and the bills sponsor. Theyre not always very nice about it either. Ive had my car scratched. Ive had them jump on it.

Dempsey says the bill is meant as a start.

The measure requires the state auditor to inspect how public funding allocated to help unsheltered Georgians is spent statewide. Sen. Kim Jackson, a Stone Mountain Democrat who served on a Senate study committee that explored homelessness last year, tried unsuccessfully to strip the bill down to just the audit, which she says has the support of nonprofits as well as lawmakers from both parties.

I strongly encourage you, lets be deliberative, Jackson said to her colleagues Monday night. Once we have a full audit, then we can make some calculated and important choices and decisions about how to best use that money.

It would also bar hospitals and local authorities from dropping people off in another county, unless the individual previously resided there or arrangements were made with another organization.

And the proposal gives the state attorney general the authority to step in if local officials try to block the enforcement of ordinances prohibiting unauthorized public camping, sleeping, or obstruction of sidewalks if they have those laws on the books. Those cities and counties could then be ordered to reimburse the state for any costs incurred.

Dempsey, who oversees the human resources spending on the House Appropriations Committee, said she is troubled by reports of beds going unoccupied at shelters, particularly in Atlanta.

We should not have cities who are looking away as people choose or feel they must find different places to put their head every night, she said.

But Democrats argued the proposal takes the wrong approach and will pressure cities and counties to step up enforcement of their ordinances, which they say amounts to criminalizing homelessness.

At the end of the day, if you know that the attorney general is going to step in and prosecute a case that they believe you should have prosecuted and you dont want to spend the money on that, youre going to be incentivized to prosecute that case, said Rep. Ruwa Romman, a Duluth Democrat.

Rep. Roger Bruce, an Atlanta Democrat, called it just another hate-filled bill during Mondays debate.

People dont like to just be candid, but you got to be candid: Its a hate-filled bill, a bill to punish people for helping people who need help. That is mean. Thats just not the right spirit for any of us here, Bruce said.

Stacey Evans, an Atlanta Democrat, told her colleagues their focus was misplaced and that lawmakers should instead be focused on the issues underlying homelessness that can be tackled on the state level.

If you want to do something about the city of Atlantas homelessness situation, how about you move your butt to Atlanta and run for office? Evans said.

Rep. John LaHood, a Valdosta Republican who chaired the committee that advanced the measure, countered that the bill particularly the audit would help give lawmakers more clarity moving forward. But he justified the other parts as also being necessary.

We want to be sure that the cities in this state dont become like Los Angeles and Austin, Texas, where we encourage people to sleep on the street. Lets do something about it, LaHood said. Were not criminalizing poverty. Were looking for solutions.

The proposal emerged from a multiyear effort pushed by state Sen. Carden Summers, a Cordele Republican who chaired a study committee on homelessness last year and who is the Senate sponsor.

The bill aims to decrease the number of homeless people sleeping on the street and help them find safety in a shelter or a mental health facility, if needed, Summers said. But the south Georgia Republican sparked controversy last session when he first floated a proposal to impose misdemeanor offenses for camping on public property.

The House also passed a bill designed to build on last years major mental health bill, but that appears stalled in the Senate.

A handful of advocates lined up to testify at a recent subcommittee meeting, and many said they welcome the audits.

We welcome any audits, and we would all support making sure that were spending money in an effective way, Brad Schweers, the executive director of Intown Collaborative Ministries said.

But the advocates at the hearing said policymakers should focus more on proven methods that help homeless people find affordable housing, especially in cities like Atlanta where rent skyrockets each year.

Like Intown Collaborative Ministries LIFT 1.0 program, which has helped about 450 people find affordable housing. Tracy Woodard, a case manager at Intown Collaborative Ministries, says much of the funding they received this year will be put toward LIFT 2.0.

Unfortunately, the biggest barrier is the lack of affordable housing, Georgia is no longer affordable. Woodard said, Before the pandemic, I could take my clients and find places for them that were about $500 a month, which you can do if youre on Social Security benefits. That has completely changed.

I can go down all the way to McDonough and I cant find anything, I cant find a rented room for less than $800 a month. So affordable housing is our biggest barrier, Woodard said.

Daniel Page is a Georgia citizen who said he experienced homelessness after being hospitalized from 2014 to 2015 for infections of his diabetic ulcers. Page is one of Woodards clients and he testified at the hearing on how the LIFT 1.0 program helped him find a permanent home.

I was able to get by and exist. It took several years until I found, you know, permanent housing. And what helped me with the permanent housing was kind of what used to be called Section 8, Page said, You pay 30% of your security check for housing, and you dont have to worry about anything else. And Im able to live doing that.

Cathryn Vassell, CEO of the nonprofit Partners for Home an Atlanta-based non-profit in the Homeless continuum of care was amongst the string of advocates.

Vassell said much of the funding her organization receives comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to the tune of about $10 million. And most of that is allocated to sustain permanent housing options, especially for people with disabilities who need their income subsidized.

So that 10 million goes to support permanent supportive housing and rapid rehousing. And that funds about 1000 units of housing for individuals. And as people move out of that housing, we replace or fill those units as people move out with people who are currently homeless.

Summers said that the audits could help boost funding for homelessness, especially in rural communities.

Homelessness is not indigenous to Atlanta, its everywhere. And were dealing with it in our community. And we had cities and counties, representatives, commissioners come up to testify that theyre not getting any funding. In Ben Hill County, in Irwin County, in Coffee County and Valdosta they need help.

Dempsey framed this years bill as a path toward other potential state-level changes, such as changing the minimum wage.

Supportive housing is the No. 1 thing we have, but we cannot afford to have enough supportive housing opportunities for all of the homeless people in our state, Dempsey said. So what are the steps we can do to understand who they are, where they are, what their needs are?

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Republican lawmakers back plan to tackle homelessness that critics ... - Georgia Recorder