Nikoel Hytrek is Iowa Starting Line’s longest-serving reporter. She covers LGBTQ issues, abortion rights and all topics of interest to Iowans. Her biggest goal is to help connect the dots between policy and people’s real lives. If you have story ideas or tips, send them over to nikoel@new.iowastartingline.com.
Nikoel Hytrek
Latest from Nikoel Hytrek
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How the LGBTQ+ community benefits from birth control
For decades, birth control has been a cornerstone of freedom. And that freedom doesn’t only apply to straight, cisgender women. Max Mowitz, a gender-affirming care doula who is also training to be a birth and postpartum doula, said birth control does a number of things for LGBTQ+ populations in addition to preventing pregnancy. Dysphoria is…
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Iowa parents explain how ‘fetal personhood’ would harm IVF
Lyndi Buckingham-Schutt and her husband Andy Schutt, both Des Moines residents, always knew they wanted to have children. When Lyndi was 30, they started trying. But as the months passed without a positive pregnancy test, the couple became frustrated and concerned. “We were under this pretense that, as soon as you roll off birth control, you’d…
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Attorney tells Iowa Supreme Court abortion ban should stay blocked
The Iowa Supreme Court Thursday heard arguments concerning the injunction on the near-total abortion ban passed is a special session last summer. Peter Im, staff attorney at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, told the justices and reporters in a press conference afterward that allowing the ban to go into effect would be “devastating.” “It bans…
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Abortion supporters rally before Iowa Supreme Court arguments
Abortion saved her life seven years ago and Leah Vanden Bosch is more grateful for it now than ever. Vanden Bosch, who serves as the development and outreach director for the Iowa Abortion Access Fund, said she’s more committed to the work than ever because she’s fully aware of how necessary it is. “This legislation…
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Iowa LGBTQ+ youth find community at Safe Schools conference
Being an LGBTQ+ student in Iowa right now is hard. Laws police which names and bathrooms students can use, and what words teachers can say in their classrooms. And yet, many told Starting Line their school experiences got better when they found a community of other LGBTQ+ students and places they could be themselves. A…
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Happy National Beer Day! Here are Starting Line’s favorite Iowa breweries
For those unaware, April 6 is New Beer’s Eve, because it leads up to National Beer Day on April 7. Why April 7? On that day in 1933, the Cullen-Harrison Act went into effect, making it legal for some low-alcohol beer and wine to be sold in the United States. The law was the first…
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Bills to support anti-abortion centers, expand postpartum Medicaid set to be law
Two bills affecting Iowans’ reproductive health passed out of the Iowa House Wednesday afternoon and could soon become law. Postpartum Medicaid SF 2251 passed the House 70-25, and it would restrict the number of people who qualify for postpartum Medicaid coverage in order to expand coverage to a full year. A fiscal note attached to…
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Founded with banned books in a garage, Annie’s Foundation opens new office
A year ago, Sara Hayden Parris’s garage was packed haphazardly with books, banners, signs, and other supplies for Annie’s Foundation events. Now, because of a generous donation, those days are no more. On March 28, Parris, board members, and supporters came out to cut the ribbon on a physical office space for Annie’s Foundation, at…
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Birth control is the key to women’s freedom. Here’s why
Birth control of some kind has existed for all of recorded human history, and the ability to change when and how one becomes pregnant has been a cornerstone of women’s rights. “What [birth control] has really done is allowed women to control their destinies, and that their destiny can include being a mother and a…
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As some Iowa lawmakers vilify birth control, here’s what it actually does
When Dr. Emily Boevers, an OB-GYN in Waverly, first sits down with patients for birth control consultations, she asks them a series of questions about why they want to use it, and for how long. “The thing that I think is really important to keep in mind about birth control is that these are hormonal…
