About 75 people were at the state capitol today, lobbying lawmakers to back measures which would restrict abortion. There was also a meeting in which participants prayed for individuals in state government, especially legislators and judges.
Kim Lehman of Iowa Right-to-Life says the events were designed to mark the 35th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision which legalized abortion. "Fifty million children have already been aborted and I don’t think the people that wanted to legalize abortion or even the Supreme Court justices had in mind the number of abortions that would take place every day in the United States which now we’re looking at about 4000 a day," Lehman says.
For Lehman, the 2008 presidential election is all about the U.S. Supreme Court. "We have two justices now that were just put in the supreme court…and those two justices are, you know we’re hoping, will be in favor of reversing Roe v. Wade and now the next presidential election that’s the elephant in the room because everyone knows that as we choose a president that president is going to choose who the next supreme court justices are going to be," Lehman says, "and we would like another Scalia, Thomas and Alito and Roberts."
Lehman’s group is still hoping state legislators enact a 24-hour waiting period before a woman may obtain an abortion. "My hope is that we just press on," Lehman says. "I know that sometimes it just takes a few people just being persistent to make a difference."
But House Democratic Leader Kevin McCarthy of Des Moines says it is very unlikely the legislature will enact that or any change in state policy on abortion. McCarthy says abortion is a "settled issue" and "not a wound we want to open up this year."