Pro-life Iowans weigh their presidential options

By Kate Quiñones

CNA Staff, Jan 8, 2024 / 07:00 am

With the Iowa Republican presidential caucuses fast approaching, the director of the advocacy organization Iowa Right to Life (IRTL) is urging candidates and voters alike to consider information on fetal development in the run-up to the Jan. 15 first-in-the-nation vote.

“I’m going to go with the candidate that’s going to put the most limitations on access to abortion,” Kristi Judkins, IRTL executive director, said in an Jan. 4 interview with “EWTN News Nightly” anchor Tracy Sabol.

“I would say personally that I feel like any person who is on the side of life needs to really educate themselves and understand what we’re speaking about with regard to legislation,” she continued. 

Judkins pointed out that Gov. Ron DeSantis put a heartbeat bill into effect in Florida, protecting the right to life after six weeks of pregnancy. “We are working to progress a fetal heartbeat bill here in Iowa,” she said.

According to a Pew Research study, 52% of Iowans believe abortion should be illegal while 46% think it should be illegal in most cases.

IRTL does not endorse particular candidates, Judkins explained, though it has been developing a voter guide that summarizes the record and perspectives of the various candidates. 

Following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Republican candidates have been split on when and how to limit abortion at a federal level. DeSantis has promoted his own state’s six-week fetal heartbeat law, but former president Donald Trump has said that making this a national restriction would be too harsh. 

While president Trump appointed three justices to the United States Supreme Court — who went on to join the high court’s majority in overturning Roe v. Wade — he subsequently criticized DeSantis’ six-week abortion ban, calling it “a terrible thing” in a September 2023 interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.” 

According to the RealClearPolitics polling average, Trump currently enjoys the support of 51.3% of likely Iowa Republican voters, followed by DeSantis with 18.6% and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley with 16.1%.

DeSantis strongly criticized Trump on the issue during a Jan. 5 CNN town hall event in the state. When asked if he thought Trump was pro-life, he replied: “Of course not!”

“When you’re saying that pro-life protections are a terrible thing, by definition, you are not pro-life,” he said. “When you say that you want to have a federal law at 18 weeks or 20 weeks that would override a state like Iowa that has enacted pro-life protections, that would mean more abortions, not less abortions, because very few abortions are happening that late anyways.”

Most abortions happen within the first trimester of pregnancy, at or before 13 weeks of gestation, according to a Jan. 11 study by Pew Research. According to the CDC, 34% of abortions happen within the first one to six weeks of pregnancy. 

“I would just encourage any candidate to reach out to Iowa Right to Life to gather information on fetal development so they know that when they’re talking about abortion limitations, when those babies can be killed in the womb,” Judkins noted. 

“Viability is always an issue with regard to whether abortion should or shouldn’t exist at a certain time frame,” she continued. “Iowa Right to Life believes that life begins at conception, and we will fight tooth and nail to make sure people are educated.”

Kate Quiñones is a staff writer for Catholic News Agency and a fellow of the College Fix. She has been published by the Wall Street Journal, the Denver Catholic Register, and CatholicVote, and she graduated from Hillsdale College. She lives in Colorado with her husband.