(Radio Iowa) – State Auditor Rob Sand says he’s concerned about the length of time the Iowa attorney general is spending on reviewing the practice of using the Crime Victims’ Compensation fund to pay for emergency contraception. Sand, a Democrat, expressed concern there’s been nothing released since Republican Attorney General Brenna Bird paused the policy when she took office in January of last year. “This is her decision on day one, to quit paying for emergency contraception for sexual assault survivors. And the word salad around that decision, and around what is going on, is nothing more than a way to reduce the clarity of that fact,” Sand says. Sand says he doesn’t understand why the payments were targeted for review.

“Her consistent use of the word audit has led to questions. So let’s be abundantly clear here. The Attorney General has never asked us to audit payments for sexual assault survivors for emergency contraception,” Sand says. “We are not performing any such audit and there is no third party performing any such audit. There is no audit going on here. There might be an internal review.”

Sand says he doesn’t understand what the Attorney General is doing this.