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Siouxland Public Media News, 4:04 Newscast

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Siouxland Public Media Newscast, 04.03.19
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A key Republican lawmaker in the Iowa House of Representatives says his committee will NOT advance a controversial fetal homicide bill that defines personhood as starting at conception. This means the proposal won’t remain eligible at the statehouse this year. 

The bill would further increase criminal penalties for a person who “causes the death of an unborn person” without consent from the mother.

Republican Representative Steven Holt of Denison says the proposal came from the Senate too late for House members to get answers to all their questions.

0403holt: 11    “There’s a concern in my caucus in terms of are the penalties appropriate, how do they match up with other states, and the implications and discussion we will have on that term unborn person.”

Holt says he supports the bill and lawmakers might discuss it again next year.

Opponents say the proposal could lead to outlawing abortion and could affect birth control and in vitro fertilization.

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts, and Missouri Governor Mike Parson plan to hold a news conference at five this afternoon in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

They’re getting an update on flood damage, a look ahead on the Missouri River outflow, and identify regional solutions for flooding and levee repairs from FEMA  and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.  

Sloan resident and former Iowa Supreme Court Justice Daryl Hecht, who served on the state's highest court for more than a decade, has died, officials said. 

Hecht served on the state Supreme Court from 2006 until he resigned in December 2018 to focus on battling skin cancer. He was 66. 

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