Iowa Republican lawmakers are attempting for the third year in a row to pass a law to add anti-abortion language to the state Constitution.

Republicans on an Iowa House subcommittee advanced the proposal last Tuesday, which the proposed amendment reads, “To defend and protect unborn children, we the people of the State of Iowa declare that this Constitution does not recognize, grant, or secure a right to abortion or require the public funding of abortion.”

House District 84 Representative Joe Mitchell (R) believes this will be the year the proposal passes both chambers, after it failed to pass in the House last session, “A few years ago when several anti-abortion bills were passed through the legislature the courts struck them down and said that actually abortion was a fundamental right in the Iowa Constitution, which clearly a lot of my colleagues don’t believe that is true.”

Opponents believe that the amendment could lay the legal groundwork for banning abortion in Iowa, if the U.S. Supreme Court was to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision protecting abortion rights. If both the House and Senate pass the bill this year or next year, they will have to approve it again in 2023 or 2024 for it to go on the ballot for Iowa voters to decide in 2024. You can hear more from Representative Mitchell in today’s Halcyon House Washington Page on air and at kciiradio.com.