Iowa GOP Senator Mark Chelgren
In the latest chapter of the supposedly “non-existent”war on women, an Iowa Republican, one State Senator Mark Chelgren, has introduced a proposal that would require women who receive child support to submit to drug testing if the person paying the child support requests it:
Iowa parents who receive child support on behalf of their kids would be required to submit to drug tests as frequently as every six months under a controversial amendment to a budget bill that was laughed at and ultimately withdrawn today in the Senate.
The proposal came from Sen. Mark Chelgren, R-Ottumwa who said he was pushing the idea on behalf of an unidentified constituent who believed his ex was using child support money for illegal drugs.
A person paying child support under Chelgren’s proposal could require the recipient to a drug test every six months as long as they pay the costs.
Some Democratic senators openly laughed as Chelgren made the proposal.
Sen. Jack Hatch, who is leading discussion on the state’s health and human services budget bill, told the Senate that he believes the proposal is anti-woman and could unfairly be used by vindictive spouses. He further expressed concerns that the proposal would clog the court system.
Chelgren rejected that argument but ultimately withdrew his amendment.
“We shouldn’t be ducking our head and running away every time there’s a difficult issue coming up,” Chelgren said.
Chelgren then withdrew his amendment, noting it’s a policy issue and doesn’t directly pertain to the area of law in the bill, Senate File 2336.
One has to wonder where the Republicans are coming up with this crap. Do they sit around in their offices and just think of ways they can stick it to the female citizenry in every humiliating way possible? I do believe that’s what they do, and their hatred of women, if it wasn’t before, is painfully obvious.
This is yet another measure meant to shame women, namely single mothers, and to legislate control of the increasingly powerful feminine majority, as women make up the majority of the U.S. population and the voting electorate, and the patriarchy knows their control is slipping away, which could be why we’re seeing this sustained, multi-layered freak-out from the right wing in regard to women’s rights.
Is it a death rattle? One can only hope; however, unless we keep up the fight and continue to call them out on this stuff, they could succeed.
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Fight the War on Women. Slap Some Stew on Your Bumper
About Beth
I sometimes think the whole mindset of these neocons is, “someone out there is about to pursue happiness and that must be stopped!”
I think you are exactly right.
Florida found that drug testing benefit recipients saved $60,000 and cost 3/4 of a million dollars. So for Iowa to start it is certainly not an objective or pragmatic decision.
As a retired family lawyer, I am familiar with the kind of venom some feel after divorce, and the lengths to which they are willing to go to harass the ex–even, from time to time, murder. But you don’t have to be a lawyer to understand the excessive, irrational vengeance some act out. Just look at Representative Joe Walsh.