Survey: Women, Choice, and Life

Summary

This survey is primarily intended for women in the state Iowa to convey their preference regarding state laws that will determine the rights of all women in the state. Submissions can be made anonymously. By completing this survey, you are helping provide a better understanding of the will of women in Iowa.

  • The aggregated survey outcomes may be generally shared on this page. This is a small non-scientific poll, and the outcome should be compared with other similar surveys for establishing better insights.
  • Survey submissions can be later changed or retracted and deleted on request by the survey participant.
  • When completing the survey, as applicable, answer relevant questions as you would wish to be treated and have other women treated.
  • This survey is intended for women who might be impacted by Iowa legislation. If you wish to complete the survey and are outside of Iowa or not a woman, please indicate that in the concluding comments.
  • More information about the survey is below, along with materials for further reading to assist with answering the survey. This survey is based on topics and questions recently raised by politicians and legislators and does not reflect the views or opinions of the survey creator.

Survey

Purpose

The purpose of this survey is to provide some information to male voters in Iowa who want their voting to reflect the preferences of women in their state. This can help ensure that women are collectively and democratically self-governed rather than governed by the opinions and decisions of men.

Background

On 24 June 2022, in the United States, decisions about reproductive choices were taken away from individual women and transferred to state legislators. This means that for some states, principles of imminent domain will govern women’s uteruses. That part of the body will not be governed by the woman, and because pregnancy and birthing are so all-encompassing, women will no longer have complete autonomy of their lives. Voters in each state will be responsible to select legislators who will establish laws supporting or limiting women’s freedoms.

Message from Survey Creator

On 29 Jun 2022, in researching women’s views on life and choice, I read a comment posted by a woman responding to the heartbeat law in Tennessee. She said, “I just hope that woman will become more responsible for their decisions.” I was surprised by that comment. It seems to me that not all pregnancies are the result of a decision a woman makes. Some are the result of assault. Perhaps some women (and some men) see pregnancy as an apt ‘punishment’ or abiding-consequence for promiscuity. While that is an antiquated and rare viewpoint, it may still be prevalent today. I wanted to get more input from women to help guide my voting decisions, so I created this survey. It is a follow-up to my initial writing on this topic, “Thoughts on Life and Choice After the Fall of Roe V. Wade on 24 June 2022.” [View]

Pro-Life and Pro-Choice Do Not Exist

We oversimplify views on abortion and place people into binary categories of pro-life or pro-choice. Yet, people’s individual personal views are much more complex.

Among pro-choice people, there is a point in a pregnancy at which they would agree nobody should be allowed to have an abortion because it would be inhumane (assuming the mother’s life was not endangered).

Among pro-life people, there are many different views about when life begins and at what point developmentally does it become unacceptable to allow an abortion. There may be circumstances where a pro-life person might consider an abortion to be acceptable. There may also be a standard they would hold themself to which is different than what they would allow another person to choose.

For this reason, many people believe that a single state-wide law becomes a violation of religious freedom and a violation of basic human rights.

Further Reading

Below are general impartial informative resources for further reading.

  • Dobbs v. Jackson [Wikipedia]
  • Heartbeat bill [Wikipedia]
  • Punishment, “There has to be some form of punishment” – comment by a recent U.S. President [View on YouTube]
  • Roe v. Wade, NPR, 24 Jun 2022, “Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, ending right to abortion upheld for decades” [View]
  • Timeline on gestation and abortion access prior to June 2022 [View]
  • Trigger law [Wikipedia]

Commentary

On 29 June 2022, Trevor Noah has offered a commentary that seems to summarize and reflect general public sentiment of those who are concerned about extreme restrictions on abortion. [View on YouTube]

Tiny House Talk with Greg Johnson (2 Nov 2019)

Greg Johnson of the Small House Society talks about the tiny house movement over the past 19 years. This event took place at the Public Library in Hiawatha, Iowa. 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXDfnLvVsn8?rel=0]