Democrat Christina Bohannan, running for Iowa’s 1st congressional district, spoke with students at a reproductive rights rally at the University of Iowa in Iowa City Oct. 11, 2024. (Photo by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
IOWA CITY — Democrat Christina Bohannan told college students and supporters Friday that their vote was crucial to restoring abortion access in Iowa.
Abortion is expected to play a crucial role in the 2024 general election — especially in Iowa. More than 40 students gathered in Iowa City at the Big Ten Theater in the University of Iowa’s Memorial Union, where Bohannan was joined by advocates with Planned Parenthood and student organizations to speak about the state of reproductive health care access in Iowa.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
The state Supreme Court in June allowed enforcement of Iowa’s law prohibiting most abortions after fetal cardiac activity can be detected, which typically occurs around six weeks of gestation. The law has some exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother but bans the vast majority of abortions in the state before most people are aware they are pregnant, reproductive advocates say.
Bohannan, a UI law professor, said she has studied the roughly 200 cases on Iowa abortion law since the state’s formation, and the current law is “stricter than the law as it was in the mid-1800s.”
When abortion was later made illegal, she said, women still had abortions, but faced much higher mortality rates as they were largely performed by non-physicians.
“A lot of women died, young, otherwise young, healthy women, with their whole lives in front of them died,” she said. “… I won’t go into that, but just say it was a gruesome business, whereas today, it’s one of the safest procedures that anybody can do, when done appropriately. So you know, I cannot be a part of that. I can’t be a part of a system that puts so many otherwise young, healthy lives at risk and puts women through such pain, and who takes away their right to decide their futures for themselves. I won’t be a part of it.”
The U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion across the U.S. with the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973. The court overturned the ruling in 2022 in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, leaving decisions on abortion access to the states.
Bohannan said her opponent, Republican incumbent Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, supported the so-called “fetal heartbeat” law in Iowa, and claimed that she supported a federal abortion ban by sponsoring a 2021 “Life at Conception” act.
The legislation, which did not advance, would guarantee a “right to life” for every human being, as well as define a human life as beginning at the moment of fertilization. The measure does not specifically mention abortion, but also does not include exceptions for the measure.
Miller-Meeks said at a Wednesday event that Democrats’ ads “lie about my position on abortion.”
At the reproductive rights rally, Bohannan said that Miller-Meeks is “backtracking” on her abortion positions because they are unpopular with Iowans.
“She knows that this is very extreme, that this is very much out of step with the way Iowans feel about this,” Bohannan said. “Because about two-thirds of Iowans believe in Roe vs. Wade, they support a right to choose. And so now, she’s trying to be moderate and trying to say she supports all these other things, but her record is very clear. … It’s very extreme, and it’s terrible for Iowa women.”
Bohannan and Miller-Meeks also faced off in the 2022 midterm election for the seat, when Miller-Meeks won reelection by more than 20,000 votes with 53.4% of the vote.
But leading into 2024, Democrats see a potential path to winning back control in the southeast Iowa district. The U.S. House Democrats’ campaign arm made ad buys in Iowa’s 1st District in August, and Bohannan outraised Miller-Meeks with more than $1.2 million to the incumbent’s $846,883 in July Federal Election Commission reports.
Miller-Meeks’ first win to office in the 2020 election was by a margin of six votes. Bohannan urged the students at the rally to vote, saying the 1st District was one of the last few “true swing districts” in the country.
“A lot of times, young people feel like your vote doesn’t matter that much, that you know, ‘one vote, how can that make a difference?’” Bohannan said. “Friends, there has never been a time when each and every individual vote mattered more than it does now. And the people in this room could have decided … the 2020 election, six times over. So we have an opportunity to make real change here in this district, turn some things around in Iowa, and also change the course of our future of this country.”
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.