Press Release |

Six-week ban denies Iowa patients their rights and dignity

In response to Governor Kim Reynolds signing a bill in Iowa that would ban abortion after six weeks, Board Chair of Physicians for Reproductive Health Dr. Willie Parker issued the following statement:

“As a physician who received my medical education at the University of Iowa College of Medicine, it is deeply disturbing that Governor Kim Reynolds would sign a bill that effectively bans a necessary and constitutionally protected medical procedure. This bill bans abortion before many women may even know they are pregnant, taking decisions about pregnancy completely out of Iowans’ hands.

“Iowans already have limited access to comprehensive health care. In 2014, according to the Guttmacher Institute, 42 percent of women in Iowa lived in a county without access to a facility that provides abortions. This bill would completely cut off access and further endanger the health of Iowan women. Politicians need to stop trying to deny women their right to a life with dignity.”

Board Chair Willie J. Parker, MD, MPH, MSc, is a reproductive justice advocate who travels as an abortion provider in Alabama and Georgia. He also was recently honored by the United Nations Office of Human Rights as one of 12 Women’s Human Rights Defenders on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the United Nations’ Fourth World Conference on Women. He is also a recipient of Planned Parenthood’s 2015 Margaret Sanger Award.

Dr. Parker joined the Physicians for Reproductive Health board in November 2007 and is the current Chair.