In Iowa, the Republican Party has been trying for months to ban Medicaid funding for abortions in the case of rape or incest. Yes, the GOP wants to deny Medicaid assistance to those who arguably need it most — low-income women who’ve been raped.

They want to victimize these women all over again.

This inhuman misogynistic right wing agenda was even too extreme for Republican Governor Terry Branstad: Branstad Denies Iowa GOP Request to Ban Medicaid Funding for Rape Victims.

The Iowa GOP’s attempt to prevent low-income victims of rape from obtaining a Medicaid-funded abortion has once more been rejected, this time by the governor’s office itself.

Last session, anti-choice lawmakers in the statehouse held the yearly budget hostage in an attempt to ban federal funding of abortion for rape victims who qualify. After failing in session, they took a new approach and filed a petition to end the funding.

Now that approach has failed, too.

Iowa Department of Human Services director Charles Palmer sent a letter to the House Republicans who made the request. Palmer said he respected their “deep feelings” on the issue,” but had to reject their attempt to force his agency to eliminate Medicaid funding of abortions in cases of rape or incest.

Palmer said such a move would “violate federal funding requirements” and would “jeopardize all” the money the State of Iowa gets from the federal government to cover Medicaid expenses. House Republicans had argued Iowa would only lose $6 million, but Palmer concluded over $2.1 billion in federal funding would be in jeopardy if he had granted the request.

Words cannot express my disgust with the Republican Party.