Lauren Shaull/Flickr Creative Commons
The state of Iowa can ban Planned Parenthood of the Heartland (PPH) from receiving government funds to provide sex education programs, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled in a decision handed down on Wednesday. The justices voted 6-1 to overturn a lower court that found the funding ban was unconstitutional.
Republican leaders of the Iowa Legislature attached the funding ban to the budget bill for the Iowa Department of Human Services during the final days of the 2019 legislative session, by means of a seldom-used legislative procedure that prevented any effort to remove it.
Although it prohibits any organization that provides abortion services from receiving grants that fund instruction for teens about safe sex, avoiding pregnancy and preventing STDs, the ban was specifically tailored to target Planned Parenthood. It contained an exemption that allowed Trinity Muscatine, the only organization other than PPH that would have been affected, to continue
Science Says Transgender Hormones and Surgeries Do Not Prevent Suicides
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30 Jun 2021
President Joe Biden and gay and transgender members of his administration celebrated Pride month last week by ripping states that have protected women’s sports from men who claim to be transgender.
“These are some of the ugliest, most un-American bills I’ve seen and I’ve been here a long time,” Biden said during a Pride reception at the White House.
Gay Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg also condemned Republicans for supporting the transgender bans to preserve women’s sports.
“There’s an especially dangerous political strategy arising in some states right now as some politicians try to gain advantage by picking on transgender kids,” Buttigieg said. “Some of the most vulnerable people in this country.”
Funding contracts for Planned Parenthood, Equality Health Center in Concord, Lovering Health Center in Greenland, Amoskeag Health in Manchester, and others are set to expire Wednesday – the last day of the 2021 state fiscal year.
Typically, whenever reproductive health centers exhaust their funding by the end of the fiscal year, the Executive Council approves a retroactive funding contract to cover the care that was provided after June 30.
This year, however, members of the Republican-dominated council said they might not approve those retroactive contracts until DHHS carries out an audit to ensure the organizations aren’t using state money toward abortions.
“I think it’s only prudent that we have this information before we’re actually approving a contract,” said Councilor Dave Wheeler, a Milford Republican.
Ducklings rescued, Zion National Park flooding, Portuguese man-of-war alert: News from around our 50 states From USA TODAY Network and wire reports
Alabama
Montgomery: Summer school teachers in Montgomery Public Schools are getting a bump in pay. The district has increased teacher wages from $25 to $50 an hour to get more teachers in the classrooms to handle an increase of students this summer, WSFA-TV reported. Superintendent Ann Roy Moore and the school board also are looking ahead to the upcoming school year. They’re planning to go back to face-to-face learning full-time. “We found that children don’t do as well virtually in most cases as they do face-to-face with a nurturing teacher in that environment,” Moore said. She said that virtual learning will be used on an as-needed basis.
A sign hangs above a Planned Parenthood clinic on May 18, 2018, in Chicago, Illinois. | Scott Olson/Getty Images
La Corte Suprema de Iowa ha ratificado una ley estatal que prohíbe a los proveedores de servicios de aborto como Planned Parenthood participar en dos programas de becas de educación financiados por el gobierno federal, revocando una decisión de un tribunal inferior.
En una decisión publicada el miércoles, la corte falló 6-1 a favor de las secciones 99 y 100 del House File 766, que fueron aprobadas por la Asamblea General de Iowa en 2019.
Las secciones prohíben que los proveedores de servicios de aborto reciban fondos del Programa Comunitario de Prevención del Embarazo en Adolescentes supervisado por el Departamento de Servicios Humanos de Iowa y del Programa de Educación de Responsabilidad Personal supervisado por el Departamento de Salud Pública de Iowa.