Iowa House subcommittee on abortion medication restrictions (full video)

Описание: Laura Belin recorded this video on February 12, 2026, as an Iowa House subcommittee considered a bill that would restrict medication abortions and impose burdensome new regulations on physicians, such as requiring them to provide medically inaccurate information about "abortion reversal."

Text of House Study Bill 704:

https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislatio...

The subcommittee chair, State Representative Devon Wood, limited public comments during this subcommittee by scheduling the hearing for only 30 minutes. The subcommittee on the companion bill in the Iowa Senate lasted for more than an hour, with everyone in the room given an opportunity to speak. Watch:

   • Iowa Senate subcommittee on abortion medic...  

Wood also stated near the beginning of this hearing that public speakers would have up to three minutes to comment for or against the anti-abortion bill. It's more typical for House and Senate subcommittees to limit comments to two minutes when many people want to speak on the bill.

The upshot was that only a small number of people were able to make their voices heard at the only opportunity for public comments. A few supporters of the bill and many opponents, including physicians and representatives of medical associations, were unable to speak during the House subcommittee. Democratic State Representative Beth Wessel-Kroeschell ceded her time near the end to allow one OB/GYN, Dr. Francesca Turner, to speak.

Wessel-Kroeschell did not support the bill, but Wood and fellow Republican State Representative Brett Barker (a pharmacist) signed off on advancing it to the full Health and Human Services Committee. About two hours later on February 12, Republicans on that committee approved an amended version of the bill.