The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit Monday that challenged the Iowa governor’s order to stop abortion providers from performing the procedure in the state in order to preserve personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers who are treating coronavirus victims.
The ACLU of Iowa filed its lawsuit in Johnson County District Court on behalf of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland and the Emma Goldman Clinic, claiming Gov. Kim Reynolds’ (R) order violated the state Constitution.
“The ACLU lawsuit throws Iowa into litigation over women’s reproductive health at a time that the state is responding to growing cases of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus,” reported the Des Moines Register.
However, Erin Davison-Rippey, executive director for Planned Parenthood North Central States, said elective abortion is a “crucial service.”
“We are in a critical moment for our state when we must come together to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, not politicize health care services that are constitutionally protected,” she said. “Iowans are doing all they can to protect their families and communities during this pandemic and Planned Parenthood is focused on providing our patients with crucial services they need.”
Reynolds spokesman Pat Garrett said the governor is “focused on protecting Iowans from an unprecedented public health disaster, and she suspended all elective surgeries and procedures to preserve Iowa’s health care resources.”
“As the governor has said over and over, Iowans are in this together,” Garrett added. “We will be working in consultation with the Attorney General’s Office to defend the actions she’s taken.”
Iowa joins Ohio, Texas, and Mississippi in banning abortions during the coronavirus crisis.
Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers are also suing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) over his ban on the procedure during the pandemic:
“There are people in Texas who need an abortion today. Now,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, acting president and CEO of Planned Parenthood, reported the Hill. “They cannot wait a delay of 30 days or even less.”
Ironically, while Planned Parenthood is demanding elective abortions to continue, the group is tweeting instructions for people to “stay home” during the coronavirus pandemic.
“And avoid being physically close to other people as much as you can,” the abortion industry giant says:
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron (R) said Friday he is also supporting a statewide ban during the pandemic that has spread to the United States from China.
Cameron said in a press statement that abortion providers that continue to perform the procedure are in violation of the state’s ban on elective medical procedures.
That ban “exists to further the mandated policy of social distancing and to help conserve medical resources for use in fighting COVID-19,” Cameron said.
On March 14, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) asked hospitals to halt performing elective procedures.
Cameron said abortion providers “should join the thousands of other medical professionals across the state in ceasing elective procedures, unless the life of the mother is at risk, to protect the health of their patients and slow the spread of the coronavirus.”
In a statement sent to Breitbart News, Catherine Glenn Foster, president and CEO of Americans United for Life, said the insistence by abortionists to perform the procedure at this time is “unconscionable.”
“The sheer selfishness on display by abortionists refusing to close shop even for a brief time to funnel every possible resource to the brave medical providers on the front lines of the fight against the coronavirus — not to mention putting women at greater risk — is simply unconscionable,” she said.