Opposition to Iowa’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act
Op-Ed Submitted Wednesday, March 3rd, 2021 to The Des Moines Register.
Note: Senate File 436 in the Iowa Legislature did not make it past the ‘first funnel’ and died in committee on March 5th, 2021. While it did not make it out of committee, along with 15 other anti-LGBTQ bills proposed by Republican lawmakers to the Iowa Legislature in 2021, the contents can still end up in amendments to bills that did make it through committee.
If the Iowa Legislature was considering a bill with potential to cost Iowans tens of millions of dollars in lost tax, business, tourism and other revenues — not to mention a severe dent in the “Iowa Nice” cultural hallmark — Iowans should be aware of it. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act (Senate File 436) before the legislature would do just that and Iowans should know the truth and its associated costs.
The “Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA)” does not address any eroding or imminent threat to religious freedoms here in Iowa, instead it consists of boilerplate language cribbed from over 21 other states’ bills that do not address Iowa-specific problems. Instead, it creates very real problems for LGBTQ people who could lose jobs, homes, health care, and a sense of belonging in a state that would be codifying discrimination into its laws.
As a Catholic, it is frustrating to see the Iowa Catholic Conference and other Christian groups endorse this kind of legislation. Despite teachings of service to all people (Ex. The Good Samaritan) and feeding hungry, sheltering homeless and welcoming strangers (Matthew 25:35), this endorsement is refusing to bake wedding cakes or provide housing or medical services to people whose very existence (not lifestyle or views) differ from theirs. Being born at Mercy hospital and passing through fine institutions including Sacred Heart and St. Pius X schools, St. Francis of Assisi Church and Dowling Catholic High School, did I simply miss the lessons on using faith as a means to discriminate?
If religious hypocrisy isn’t enough, the economic prospects should alarm every Iowan. RFRA laws have been economic disasters to other states and Iowa would be no different. Look to our midwestern neighbor Indiana in 2015 which passed its own bill (with curiously similar language to Iowa’s SF 436) that cost the state over $60 million in business and tourism, according to the Indianapolis Star. It drew nationwide ridicule and threats of boycott from hometown businesses and major economic drivers including the NCAA, Eli Lilly, Angie’s List and Salesforce. Later still, Indiana paid $365,000 in public money after its RFRA was enacted to rehabilitate the very image its business community warned would be tarnished if the legislature passed it.
Chambers of Commerce from every metro area in Iowa including Cedar Rapids, Council Bluffs, and the Greater Des Moines Partnership have come out against Iowa’s RFRA bill. Major employers Principal, Wellmark, and Meredith have all registered their opposition, with others voicing concern, because they know what’s coming. RFRA bills are bad for employee recruiting and retention, they’re bad for the state’s image, and they’re bad for business. If Iowa moves forward with it’s own RFRA bill, employers and the billions of dollars and thousands of jobs they’ve invested in our state won’t be the only thing that might leave. Iowans (and the partners they convinced to move here) who moved back to the state with the promise of a job opportunity and a welcoming place to live might too.
