Almost all Republican members of the U.S. House and Senate say they’re pro-life and vote that way. But few are willing to speak out and lead on the issue. It’s controversial. It may alienate members of the donor class and infuriate some Democrats. Iowa senator Joni Ernst doesn’t seem to care about any of that.
“They say that I’m anti-woman or anti-choice. You can’t let that bother you,” Ernst said in an interview Friday. “I’ve been to war,” added the Iraq war veteran and mother of three. “This is not a war on women.”
With just a year of experience in the Senate under her belt, Ernst has already established herself as an outspoken leader on pro-life issues. After an undercover investigation by the Center for Medical Progress revealed that Planned Parenthood was involved in the trafficking of aborted baby body parts, Ernst sponsored the bill to defund Planned Parenthood. For the first time ever, Congress successfully passed a bill defunding it, but the measure was vetoed by President Obama.
On Friday, Ernst was the only female U.S. senator to speak at the March for Life, the annual protest of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion-on-demand. Before heading down to the National Mall, Ernst sat down with THE WEEKLY STANDARD for an interview in her Senate office to talk about why she was marching.
“I believe that I’m protecting future generations of women. I believe that I’m protecting unborn life, I believe that I’m protecting babies–and we have to phrase it like that,” Ernst said. “They are babies.”
On the forty-third anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Ernst encouraged pro-lifers not to despair. “It took us a very long time to get to Roe v. Wade, and it will take us a long time to overcome that as well,” she said. “But never get discouraged. I’m an eternal optimist. If we can save one life in the process, I think we’re doing the right thing.”
“It’s so important that you will see hundreds of thousands of people even on a snowy cold day come out and support life,” she said.
As the 2016 election cycle kicks off, Ernst emphasized the importance of electing a pro-life president. She called on Republican candidates to tell voters where they stand on Roe v. Wade. Without mentioning her by name, Ernst took aim at Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who celebrated the anniversary in New Hampshire. “I think they’re calling it celebrating saving women’s lives. But I see it as they are celebrating taking lives,” she said.
Ernst said that it’s very frustrating that pro-life legislation to defund Planned Parenthood and ban late-term abortion hasn’t been enacted, but that blame for that failure lies with “pro-abortion Democrats,” not pro-life members of Congress. “We work, and work, and work. We put our hearts and souls into these issues.” But Ernst said she was encouraged by the fact that the Senate voted for the first time in 2015 on legislation banning abortion after the fifth month of pregnancy, when infants can feel pain and survive if born prematurely.
“It is important because that is a fully-formed baby,” Ernst said. “I think we see great movement toward pro-life [views] with the younger generations because we have technology now where people can see through sonograms that this is a baby–it actually looks like a baby with ten fingers and ten toes. To know that when a needle is going in or when a procedure is being done that that baby feels that pain and will move away from that object, they are like any other human baby that’s been born. They feel pain. I think that resonates with a lot of people out there.”
Before Ernst headed out to address the large crowd on the National Mall, the senator shared a story about how her own teenage daughter has inspired her to continue to speak out.
“My daughter last year–she was a 15-year-old sophomore in high-school–and she had to do a class project in speech,” Ernst said, as her eyes became a little moist. “She chose why it’s important to be pro-life. She could have picked any topic, and she chose that one because she thought it was really important.”
“And she read the speech to me, and I always get a little teary-eyed about it. But here’s a young lady who believes strongly in life. I’m pro-life, her daddy is pro-life. But for her to take it upon herself and stand up in front of her classmates was pretty remarkable,” Ernst continued. “And after she got done with her speech, I said, Libby, ‘You know there are probably going to be classmates who don’t agree with you, and they might say some ugly things. And she said, ‘Oh well.'”
“That’s good,” Ernst thought. “That doesn’t bother her that other people are going to say nasty things. She’s a lot like her momma.”
