Iowa’s medieval abortion ban, the benefits of full employment and the return of primetime Tucker Carlson
WHAT YOU MISSED
- That Supreme Court ruling in favor of a web designer refusing same-sex wedding work? Well, a Michigan salon is citing it to refuse service to LGBTQ customers, saying queer people looking for a haircut can go to a local "pet groomer" instead.
- Wisconsin Democrat Rebecca Cooke has announced her congressional run against GOP Rep. Derrick Van Orden in the state’s third Congressional district. It's a battleground seat, and Van Orden attended the Jan. 6 insurrection.
- U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) has had a tough 24 hours figuring out whether white nationalists are racist.
Iowa moves forward with six-week abortion moratorium
With a 56-34 vote Tuesday night, Republicans in the Iowa House of Representatives successfully passed a bill that would prevent access to abortions after fetal cardiac activity is identified. This typically occurs around six weeks, well before a person knows they are pregnant. The bill — which mirrors a 2018 ban that the state’s supreme court struck down — passed during a special session Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) called for last week.
The bill also passed the Iowa Senate last night with a 32-17 vote, almost exclusively along party lines.
In the original blocking of the abortion bill via a 3-3 tie, Iowa Supreme Court Justice Thomas D. Waterman wrote in his legal opinion, “It would be ironic and troubling for our court to become the first state supreme court in the nation to hold that trash set out in a garbage can for collection is entitled to more constitutional protection than a woman’s interest in autonomy and dominion over her own body.”
These new limitations make few exceptions for rape and incest and no exceptions for age, despite efforts by Democratic lawmakers to do so.
"For the love of Pete, that's child abuse. We're standing here debating a bill to save babies, but yet we would put a 12-year-old, an 11-year-old, a 10-year-old through this?" said state Rep. Timi Brown-Powers (D-Des Moines) during the end of the session.
Such efforts by the Iowa GOP push against majority consensus in the state. A poll conducted by the Des Moines Register last fall found that 61% of Iowa residents thought abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
“This is absolutely an offense to women. This is an offense to everybody,” said Felicia Hilton, a Des Moines resident who spoke out against the ban at a committee hearing earlier in the day.
“The church wasn't there when [Reynolds was] going to cut the food assistance from the federal government to people. Where were you then?”
Hilton is referring to recent efforts by the governor and the local GOP to dedicate millions of taxpayer dollars to remove low-income individuals from food stamps and Medicaid rolls.
Despite grassroots activism and protests in the state capital, the abortion ban is expected to be signed into law by Reynolds on Friday.
Full employment under Biden reaping benefits for the working class
It seems the president’s “controversial” COVID-19 spending bill proved to be much better for low-income workers than was imagined. A recent analysis by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan helped create stability in both the domestic front (with child tax credits) and the private sector (with low-interest loans that prevent businesses from falling under).
Such investments led to low rates of unemployment, which in turn allowed workers to force firms to compete for their services with better pay and benefits — especially those in sectors with traditionally meager wages.
“Labor market tightness following the height of the COVID-19 pandemic led to an unexpected compression in the US wage distribution that reflects, in part, an increase in the labor market Competition,” the study concludes.
“Disproportionate wage growth at the bottom of the distribution reduced the college wage premium and reversed the rise in aggregate wage inequality since 1980 by approximately one quarter, as measured by the 90-10 ratio.”
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
- FRIDAY: Tucker Carlson (whose Twitter show views are plummeting) will host the first GOP presidential forum on BlazeTV, kneecapping Fox News’ August debate. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, former Vice President Mike Pence and Vivek Ramaswamy will attend. Former President Donald Trump will not be in attendance.
- JULY 20: U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) announced that the Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on an ethics package for Supreme Court justices.
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"If this is about the church and if this is about God, you are the same people that would slap them loaves of bread out of Jesus’ hand, slap out the fish out of Jesus’ hand and tell them to get in line to figure out if they are worthy or eligible."
-- Felicia Hilton, Des Moines resident testifying against Iowa’s six-week abortion bill