(Radio Iowa) – Vice President Kamala Harris visited Des Moines Thursday to talk with Democratic lawmakers and abortion rights advocates.  “People around our country are concerned, afraid, confused, desperate, in many ways feeling very alone in terms of what are their options and what are their rights,” Harris said. The vice president’s visit came a day after a federal judge heard arguments in a case that could end nationwide access to abortion pills.

Harris said the Biden Administration is taking the case very seriously and she hinted appeals could reach the U.S. Supreme Court if the Texas judge moves to ban abortion pills. “We are prepared to do whatever we may and can if the court rules in a way that we believe is in the best interest of the public health of America,” Harris said.

Medication abortions now account for more than half of all abortions in the U.S. “Politicians are asking a court of law to undo a decision by the FDA that was made on the basis of peer review of the work of medical health professionals 20 years ago that deemed a particular medication — mifepristone — to be safe,” she said. Harris suggests if a judge is able to ban this medication, that would open the door to legal challenges for other F-D-A approved drugs.

“We should all understand that these attacks go beyond reproductive health,” Harris said. Abortion is legal in Iowa up to the 20th week of a pregnancy. Governor Kim Reynolds, though, has cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling last summer that overturned the 1973 decision that legalized abortion — asking the Iowa Supreme Court to let a 2018 law go into effect. That law, which Reynolds signed, would ban abortions after the 6th week of pregnancy. Harris says for that and other reasons, Iowa is on the front lines of the fight over abortion.

“What we know in Iowa is that there is an attorney general who has joined attorneys general around the country who are asking the court to overturn an FDA approved medication — mifepristone,” Harris said. “There are attorneys general around the country, including here, who are attempting to tell pharmacies to not dispense abortion medication.” Walgreens announced recently it would not dispense or mail abortion pills in Iowa and many other states.

Iowa Republican Party chairman Jeff Kaufmann says it’s too bad Harris spent her time talking about everything other than the issues that are actually at the top of Iowans’ minds –the disastrous economy and runaway inflation.

Harris arrived in Iowa late Thursday morning and the discussion about abortion rights was held at Grand View University. Harris then watched the second half of her alma mater’s NCAA men’s basketball game. After Howard University’s loss to Kansas, Harris met the team in the locker room and told the Bison players their never-give-up attitude had been an inspiration and they had made Howard alums around the world proud.

(Radio Iowa) – A bill that’s on its way to the governor would require that students in Iowa K-through-12 schools use bathrooms and locker rooms designated for the gender on their birth certificate. After a sometimes contentious debate, 57 House Republicans voted for the measure. Five Republicans and all Democrats present voted against the policy. Representative Steven Holt, a Republican from Denison, says he’s heard from countless parents who’ve expressed support for the measure.

“I had four daughters,” Holt said, “and I think a lot of folks would be very, very, very much concerned about their daughters having to change clothes in a locker room with a male.” House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst, of Windsor Heights, says the policy is unnecessary. “All of us, including transgender students, care about the safety and privacy in restrooms and locker rooms,” Konfrst said. “…It is already illegal for anyone to enter these facilities to harm or harass someone or intentionally invade someone’s privacy.”

Other Democrats like Representative Austin Baeth of Des Moines say the bill is an attack on an already marginalized group of kids.  “These are sweet, innocent kids, folks, who just need to go pee,” Baeth said. “Let’s stay the hell out of it.” Holt says nothing in the bill would prevent students from peeing, as it calls for schools to make other restrooms available to transgender students.

“The folks supporting this bill did not move the goal posts. It was understood until recently that biology is what determined the use of restrooms,” Holt said. “…This bill really tries to address the concerns on both sides of this issue.” The bill passed the Senate on March 7th with the support of 33 Republicans. All Democrats in the Senate opposed it.

(Radio Iowa) – A mobile education simulator is now in Sioux City to provide training to emergency responders in the western third of Iowa.  Iowa College of Nursing senior advisor, Jacinda Bunch, says the “Simulation in Motion” truck will be based a the Sioux City Fire Rescue Training Center. “The truck is equipped with clinical simulation equipment. So we have a simulated emergency room bay in the front of the truck that looks like an emergency room. We have all the equipment and supplies needed to take care of a patient there,” she says. “We have a computer operation station for our educators. And then the back of the truck is set up to look like the back of an ambulance. So again, all of the equipment supplies that you would expect to see in the back of an ambulance.”

“We have an adult male, we have an adult female that can give birth, we have a young child who’s probably about seven to eight years old, and then we have a newborn up to about nine months old,” she says. Bunch says the human simulators allow them to set up all kinds of training exercises. “We create medical or trauma scenarios based on the educational needs and desires of the community that we’re serving we allow the providers to come in and to care for those patients doing hands on skills hands on clinical assessments practice or critical thinking,” Bunch says.

The truck will travel across western Iowa training E-M-T’s and return to Sioux City for training there as well. The truck is part of a University of Iowa program and is one of three covering the state.