Governor Kim Reynolds called for more taxpayer money to go toward preventing abortions and an Iowa Senator questions the efficacy of the proposal. 

Last session, Governor Reynolds directed $500,000 of state funding towards a program called “More Options for Maternal Support,” (MOMS) which provides non-profit organizations with funds that promote alternatives to abortion. State Senator for District 14 Sarah Trone-Garriott has concerns about the honesty of this program because it was modeled after a similar Texas program that incurred financial irregularities.

“We saw millions of taxpayer dollars in Texas being used on completely inappropriate things, because the way the program works is if you’ve got this third party entity that administers the money and then all these subcontractors, really easy to lose track of what those folks are spending their money on. And there were very few requirements for the services they should provide.”

Trone-Garriott says that she supports legislation that would give people access to information to prevent pregnancy with proper healthcare options like birth control, social support for families and measures to make sure a pregnancy is safe and healthy. She explains that the state is headed in the wrong direction with abortions rising.

“We’ve closed a lot of clinics that provide healthcare, a lot of rural providers are closing, a lot of hospitals are closing, and birthing centers are closing. That’s not a good situation for actually improving, reducing maternal mortality and making people healthier.” 

Reynolds wants to expand the funding to the MOMs program from its current $500,000 to $2 million.