The thing you need to know about Iowa Senate candidate Joni Ernst is that she is one hundred percent owned and operated by the Kochs. They promoted her, they are financing her campaign, and she is grateful to them to the point where she knows she wouldn't be where she is without them.
And that means she lies. A lot. Sunday night's debate was no exception. When the question of the personhood amendment resolution she sponsored in 2013 came up, she lied some more.
This is what she co-sponsored:
The ad claims that the amendment would “outlaw abortion even in cases of rape or incest.” There is no provision in the amendment that would allow for those exceptions. Ernst was one of 21 lawmakers who sponsored the resolution, which was never brought to the floor for a vote.
The ad claims that the amendment “would have banned many common forms of birth control.” The amendment would indeed effectively ban any hormonal forms of birth control.
The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) opposes personhood measures. In a statement, the organization said that such measures “erode women’s basic rights to privacy and bodily integrity; deny women access to the full spectrum of preventive health care including contraception; and undermine the doctor-patient relationship.”
The ad also claims that Ernst wants criminal punishment for doctors who perform an abortion. Ernst is shown during a May debate saying that “the [abortion] provider should be punished, if there were a personhood amendment.”
But in her debate with Bruce Braley Sunday, she sang a bit of a different tune.
The amendment that's being referenced by the Congressman would not do any of the things that you stated it would do. That amendment is simply a statement that I support life.
Sure she does. Braley enumerated all of the things that the amendment, if adopted, would have done:
That it would ban forms of contraception. It would prevent people from getting in vitro fertilization and you personally said that doctors who perform those procedures under your bill should be prosecuted.
Poor Joni was in a pickle then, so she did what Republicans do when cornered. She lied.
And that is only if legislation would be passed. This amendment was again a statement of life. Again, my faith has shaped me on that. When it does come to a woman's access to contraception, I will always stand with our women on affordable access to contraception...I do believe in a woman's right to contraception.
No, she doesn't. She doesn't at all. And the text of the amendment was draconian, identical in language to the North Dakota personhood amendment, which is on the ballot for voters to approve in November. The language of the amendment states that life begins at conception, and if allowed to stand, would effectively ban forms of birth control that stop implantation, not to mention abortion. There are no exceptions to this. No rape exception and certainly no incest exception.
It's just a joke for her to stand there and claim otherwise, or backtrack and say it was just something she supported even though it wasn't going to pass.
She also backtracked on her support for privatizing Social Security and dodged completely the question of minimum wage laws, saying only that states should have the right to set them. I suppose it's only right and fitting that a KochHead like Ernst thinks a minimum wage Race to the Bottom is an excellent thing.
Seriously, Iowa. Don't let this woman replace Tom Harkin, who has been a magnificent champion for the people.
