Hunter
02/16/26
Two Iowa City lawmakers hosted a feedback session Sunday to answer questions on education, public health, and human rights bills presented in the Iowa legislature.
State Senator Janice Weiner and State Representative Elinor Levin hosted the event at Sidekick Coffee and Books.
The Daily Iowan reports community members raised questions about a house bill that aims to eliminate state-mandated vaccines for students attending elementary and secondary schools and has already advanced out of committee.
Levin said while the bill is framed by supporters as expanding parental choice, she believes removing vaccine requirements would undermine public health infrastructure and erode trust in medical expertise. She added legislation like this is what is driving doctors out of the state.
Another proposed Senat bill that Senator Weiner called “straight out of Project 2025” would allow couples registering for marriage licenses to opt out of no-fault divorce, a legal dissolution of marriage where neither spouse is required to prove wrongdoing, such as adultery or cruelty. She said, “There is no reason to put more women and more kids at risk of being stuck in a violent household than we already face.”
Levin addressed a House bill that proposes to legally protect parents, foster caregivers, and adoptive families from investigations of child abuse or endangerment when raising children according to their biological sex. She said the bill passed through a committee primarily made up of Republican lawmakers and continues the false narrative that all liberals want to do is make everybody queer.
Senator Weiner said state Democrats remained focused on bills aimed at lowering the cost of food, health care, child care, housing, improving water quality, reducing cancer rates and raising the minimum wage.