IOWA Shared Parenting HF 345 Passes Out of Committee - Eligible for Floor Debate

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IowaFathers

HF 345 Passes Out of Committee - Eligible for Floor Debate

March 4, 2011

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Dear Jim,

 

Great News! House File 345, passed out of the House Judiciary Committee this week 11-10.  The bill, which creates a rebuttable presumption of joint physical care, is now eligible for debate on the House Floor.  A rally date at the Capitol is currently being planned and the details will be released soon!

 

Please send Rep. Kaufmann, Rep. Rogers, Rep. Abul-Samad, Rep. Rasmussen, Rep. Sands, and Rep. Muhlbauer an individual thank you for introducing this bill and for their hard work in getting HF 345 through committee.

In order to successfully pass HF 345 on the House Floor, we need to gain more support.  I'm asking all members and concerned citizens to please start emailing all members of the Iowa House of Representatives asking them to support HF 345.  For your convenience, all Iowa House Representatives email addresses are listed below for copy and paste:

ako.abdul-samad@legis.state.ia.us; dwayne.alons@legis.state.ia.us; richard.anderson@legis.state.ia.us; richard.arnold@legis.state.ia.us; Chip.Baltimore@legis.state.ia.us; clel.baudler@legis.state.ia.us; 

deborah.berry@legis.state.ia.us; Mark.Brandenburg@legis.state.ia.us;Josh.Byrnes@legis.state.ia.us; royd.chambers@legis.state.ia.us;dennis.cohoon@legis.state.ia.us; peter.cownie@legis.state.ia.us; 

betty.deboef@legis.state.ia.us; dave.deyoe@legis.state.ia.us; cecil.dolecheck@legis.state.ia.us; jack.drake@legis.state.ia.us; greg.forristall@legis.state.ia.us; Joel.Fry@legis.state.ia.us; 

RuthAnn.Gaines@legis.state.ia.us; Julian.Garrett@legis.state.ia.us; mary.gaskill@legis.state.ia.us; pat.grassley@legis.state.ia.us; chris.hagenow@legis.state.ia.us; Bob.Hager@legis.state.ia.us; 

Chris.Hall@legis.state.ia.us; Curt.Hanson@legis.state.ia.us; MaryAnn.Hanusa@legis.state.ia.us;  dave.heaton@legis.state.ia.us; lisa.heddens@legis.state.ia.us; Lee.Hein@legis.state.ia.us; 

erik.helland@legis.state.ia.us; lance.horbach@legis.state.ia.us; bruce.hunter@legis.state.ia.us; dan.huseman@legis.state.ia.us; charles.isenhart@legis.state.ia.us; Stewart.Iverson@legis.state.ia.us;

david.jacoby@legis.state.ia.us; Ron.Jorgensen@legis.state.ia.us; Anesa.Kajtazovic@legis.state.ia.us; jeff.kaufmann@legis.state.ia.us; jerry.kearns@legis.state.ia.us; Dan.Kelley@legis.state.ia.us;

Jarad.Klein@legis.state.ia.us; kevin.koester@legis.state.ia.us;  bob.kressig@legis.state.ia.us; vicki.lensing@legis.state.ia.us; Mark.Lofgren@legis.state.ia.us; steven.lukan@legis.state.ia.us; 

jim.lykam@legis.state.ia.us; mary.mascher@legis.state.ia.us; Glen.Massie@legis.state.ia.us; kevin.mccarthy@legis.state.ia.us; helen.miller@legis.state.ia.us; linda.miller@legis.state.ia.us; 

Brian.Moore@legis.state.ia.us; Dan.Muhlbauer@legis.state.ia.us; pat.murphy@legis.state.ia.us; jo.oldson@legis.state.ia.us; rick.olson@legis.state.ia.us; steven.olson@legis.state.ia.us; 

tyler.olson@legis.state.ia.us; kraig.paulsen@legis.state.ia.us; Ross.Paustian@legis.state.ia.us; Kim.Pearson@legis.state.ia.us; janet.petersen@legis.state.ia.us; dawn.pettengill@legis.state.ia.us; 

brian.quirk@legis.state.ia.us; scott.raecker@legis.state.ia.us;  Dan.Rasmussen@legis.state.ia.us; henry.rayhons@legis.state.ia.us;  Walt.Rogers@legis.state.ia.us; kirsten.running-marquardt@legis.state.ia.us;

tom.sands@legis.state.ia.us; renee.schulte@legis.state.ia.us;  jason.schultz@legis.state.ia.us; Tom.Shaw@legis.state.ia.us;  Jeff.Smith@legis.state.ia.us; mark.smith@legis.state.ia.us; 

chuck.soderberg@legis.state.ia.us; sharon.steckman@legis.state.ia.us; kurt.swaim@legis.state.ia.us; annette.sweeney@legis.state.ia.us;  Jeremy.Taylor@legis.state.ia.us; todd.taylor@legis.state.ia.us;

phyllis.thede@legis.state.ia.us; roger.thomas@legis.state.ia.us;  david.tjepkes@legis.state.ia.us; linda.upmeyer@legis.state.ia.us;  jim.van.engelenhoven@legis.state.ia.us; Guy.VanderLinden@legis.state.ia.us; 

nick.wagner@legis.state.ia.us; ralph.watts@legis.state.ia.us; andrew.wenthe@legis.state.ia.us; 

beth.wessel-kroeschell@legis.state.ia.us;  nate.willems@legis.state.ia.us; cindy.winckler@legis.state.ia.us; 

matt.windschitl@legis.state.ia.us; John.Wittneben@legis.state.ia.us;  Mary.Wolfe@legis.state.ia.us; gary.worthan@legis.state.ia.us;

Below is the email I am personally sending to the entire Iowa House on HF 345.  Please feel free to use my research in your email.

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Dear Iowa House of Representatives,

 

I'm hopeful you will allow children the opportunity to have equal access to both parents by voting in favor of HF 345.

 

Click here for a thesis explaining in-depth the legality need along with the social need for a rebuttable presumption of joint physical care here in Iowa.  

 

A few key points that I would like to stress are as follows:

•         Joint physical care or shared parenting is when both parents share physical placement of the child(ren). Simply defined, joint physical care allows the child(ren) to live with each parent 50% of the time during the year.

•         In all thirty-three comparative studies in the U.S. comparing the outcomes of children in joint physical care to those in the care of only one parent found that children in joint physical care have better outcomes (Bauserman, 2002).

•         The percentage of all births that were to unmarried women more than doubled between 1980 and 2008. In 2008, 41 percent of births were to unmarried women, up from 40 percent in 2007. Increases have occurred for women in all age groups, with the largest increases measured for women in their twenties (America's Children in Brief: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2010).

•         Mothers win primary physical care in 84.4 percent of the cases (Support Providers: 2002, 2005).

•         According to recent studies, approximately 40 percent of child victims were maltreated by their mothers acting alone; another 18.3 percent were maltreated by their fathers acting alone; 17.3 percent were abused by both parents (United States Department of Health and Human Services, 2007).

•         On specifically neglect, a study found that children living with just one parent, under any living arrangement, had significantly higher rates of Harm Standard neglect with 27.0 per 1,000 children compared to those living with two married biological parents with 4.2 per 1,000 children (Fourth National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect (NIS-4), 2010).

•         Research by Dr. Judith Wallerstein and Dr. Joan Berlin Kelly revealed that 50 percent of mothers either saw no value in the father's contact with his children and actively tried to sabotage it, or resented the father's contact (Wallerstein & Kelly, 1996).

•         According to the U.S. Department of Justice, an estimated 2.11 million persons under the age of eighteen were arrested in 2008, where 1 in 10 arrests were for murder and 1 in 4 arrests were for robbery, burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft. The report further showed that Iowa (92% reporting coverage) reported 252 juvenile violent crime arrests, 1792 juvenile property crime arrests, 396 juvenile drug abuse arrests, and 52 juvenile weapons arrests (Juvenile Arrests 2008, 2009).

The negative impacts of fatherless children cannot be ignored. Please support HF 345 which will create a rebuttable presumption of joint physical care and help ensure that Iowa's children gain access to both parents!

Sincerely,

Bryan Iehl

Founder & President

IowaFathers

PO Box 2884

Waterloo, IA  50704-2884

support@IowaFathers.com 

 

 

 

 

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