(Radio Iowa) – A giant replica of a device that prevents pregnancy has been installed in public spaces in Cedar Rapids and Des Moines this week, part of a national tour to promote legal access to birth control. Representative Liz Bennett, a Democrat from Cedar Rapids, spoke during a news conference staged beside the 20 foot tall inflatable intrauterine device or IUD. She urged Iowa Democrats to learn more about the threats to contraception. “What we’ve seen here in Iowa is part of a national playbook of policies,” Bennett said. “…All across the nation, when elected officials say they believe in policies that ‘protect life all the way from the moment of conception,’ believe them.”

State Senator Zach Wahls, a Democrat from Coralville, said Republicans in the Iowa legislature would not allow debate of a measure to ensure Iowa woman have access to all forms of birth control. “We were stunned when our Republican colleagues refused to let this legislation come forward for a simple public hearing or a subcommittee for one vote,” Wahls said. “They shut down discussion on this topic completely, which is why we had to take our case out to the people.”

Replica of an IUD temporarily installed in Cedar Rapids park. (Photo by Zachary Oren Smith of Iowa Public Radio)

Key groups that backed Iowa’s new ban on abortions after fetal activity can be detected say their next goal is passage of a “personhood” law that would ban all abortions. Democrats say that would not only make contraception illegal, but would ban in vitro fertilization. IVF assisted pregnancies accounted for 2.5% of live births in the U.S. in 2022.

(Reporting by Zachary Oren Smith, Iowa Public Radio)