Parental Rights Passes Iowa Senate, On to the House
Great news! SF 496 passed the Iowa Senate yesterday on a vote of 34-16! Your calls made the difference!
This bill, which will protect fundamental parental rights and require strict judicial scrutiny whenever these rights are infringed, was transmitted to the Iowa House last night, where it will go through a subcommittee and committee on its way to a floor vote as early as next week. (The amendment we asked you to champion with us yesterday passed and is now part of the total bill, so no further mention of the amendment is needed.)
Please take a moment today to contact your Iowa representative and urge him or her to support SF 496 when it comes before them for a vote. If your representative is on the Education Committee, you’ll want to ask him or her to vote in favor both in committee and on the floor.
Your message, either via phone or email, should be in your own words, and can be as simple as the following:
“As an Iowa voter, I respectfully ask you to support SF 496, An Act Relating to Children and Students. The vital role of a parent in the life of a child must be protected. Today is the day for Iowa’s legislative code to catch up with a hundred years of U.S. Supreme Court precedent and our Iowa court precedent to protect these rights with the respect they deserve. Fifteen states have already passed similar laws to establish parental rights as fundamental, and Iowa should join them.”
Then, once you’ve contacted your representative, we want to celebrate this win in the Iowa Senate, which has literally been years in the making.
In particular, we’d ask you to take a moment today to send a friendly email (no phone call is necessary) thanking Sen. Ken Rozenboom for his hard work on SB 496.
Senator Rozenboom did a tremendous job of understanding the need for fundamental parental rights and strict scrutiny protection, and he put forth an amazing effort to shepherd this bill through the Senate.
Your message to Senator Rozenboom can be super simple, even just one sentence starting with “Thank you…!” His email address is ken.rozenboom@legis.iowa.gov.
If your own senator voted “yes” on SF 496, you may want to take a moment to send him or her an email of thanks, as well. You can find the vote results in the image accompanying this email and your senator’s contact information here.
Thank you for taking a moment today to make your voice heard in the House and your appreciation known in the Senate. Together we will see parental rights protected in Iowa code in the very near future!
Sincerely,
Will Estrada
President, ParentalRights.org and the Parental Rights Foundation