We have great things happening in Iowa! First, we are excited that we have bills in both the House and Senate this year, and our House bill has half a dozen co-sponsors. The leap in support for our cause this year is incredible! We were disappointed when our House bill was assigned the the HR committee last week, which has a few members who are extremely opposed to our cause. However, our brilliant sponsor, Mary Mascher, made a genius move yesterday: she resurrected our bill from last year, which had been assigned to the State Gov't committee, and added the new bill as an amendment to it.
This bill passed through subcom yesterday and goes to full committee today at 4. We don't know what will happen, but State Gov't is a much friendlier place for our bill to be than HR would have been, so we are optimistic!! It's been a blessing that Ida Darragh joined us this week, and got to speak to the committee yesterday to educate legislators. All in all, it's been an amazing week for midwifery! We have members at the capitol today to lobby the SG committee, and Ida will be there as well.
Hooray!
1 comment:
Although I'm not from Iowa (hello from Missouri!), I'm glad to hear that legislation is moving along! It will be nice when families who live along state borders can call on midwives on either side of the state line, without fear that someone will be prosecuted for assisting in a homebirth.
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