Pro-life Iowans filled the Iowa Statehouse on Monday to pray for an end to abortion.

KCRG 9 News reports hundreds of people participated in the Iowa Prayer Rally for Life, including Gov. Kim Reynolds and other pro-life lawmakers.

Together, they prayed and called on state lawmakers to pass a constitutional amendment that would make it clear there is no right to abort an unborn baby or force taxpayers to fund their deaths.

“Unborn lives matter!” the crowd declared in unison, WHO-TV reports.

Reynolds encouraged Iowans to keep working to protect unborn babies from abortion because they are making a difference.

“You are the beating heart of a movement that’s making a difference not just in this state but across America,” Reynolds said. “For me, like many of you, this isn’t about politics. It’s not about political party or an election. It’s about the kind of society that we want to be: one that recognizes the beauty and humanity of every single child or one that discards it.”

She continued, “As the last couple years have shown us, the fight for life is one with ups and downs, with victories and setbacks, but all of it just underscores how vitally important it is for us to stay engaged, to have faith and to never give up.”

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State Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison, also spoke about the changing culture and the growing pro-abortion extremism on the political left.

“The left has gone from saying that abortion should be safe and rare to celebrating abortion and dehumanizing infant children and being completely OK with letting a baby die on a cold metal table after a botched abortion,” Holt said. “This is the evil that we are fighting.”

Holt and other Iowa lawmakers are working to restore protections to unborn babies. In February, the state Senate passed a pro-life constitutional amendment to protect basic human rights both now and in the future.

Such amendments are important because the abortion industry often turns to the courts to overturn pro-life laws. Some judges, including the Iowa Supreme Court in 2018, have found a so-called “right to abortion” in their state constitutions, and these decisions have been used to force taxpayers to fund abortions and restrict state legislatures from passing even minor, common sense abortion restrictions.

The amendment would add the following language: the Iowa Constitution “shall not be construed to recognize, grant or secure a right to abortion or to require the public funding of abortion.”

To be added to the Iowa Constitution, the amendment must pass the state legislature both this year and next year and then be approved by voters on the ballot. It currently is awaiting action in the Iowa House.

In 2018, West Virginia voters passed a similar state constitutional amendment after decades of being forced by a court ruling to fund elective abortions with taxpayer dollars. The amendment will make it easier for state lawmakers to pass pro-life laws in the future.

ACTION ALERT: Contact Iowa lawmakers to support the amendment.