It’s hard to expect lawmakers to make good, pro-life laws if we never communicate just how important it is that they do so. It’s really easy to contact lawmakers, and it can be as simple as a quick phone call, email, or letter. You can always try to arrange to meet with a lawmaker if you have the time.
How to Contact Them
Some people don’t know who their lawmakers are. To find your legislator and state senator, use the link below. After finding your lawmakers, you can click on their names and find the phone numbers, email addresses, or mailing address to use to communicate with them.
https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislators/find
Tips
The Equal Rights Institute has a video with tips that’s worth watching. Aside from that, the following are a few quick tips.
Be respectful. Most people don’t change their minds just because someone yells at them, makes them sound stupid, or mischaracterizes their real stance on a matter. Treat them as you would hope someone would treat you.
If calling, be ready to leave a message. Lawmakers often spend time in meetings, voting/debating bills, and meeting with others. They have staff who can take a message. Just because lawmakers aren’t always in their office, it doesn’t mean they are never in their office. So be ready to talk with them if the opportunity arises.
It helps to communicate the point in a concise manner. If you want more detail, consider summarizing the main point in 1-3 short paragraphs. Then make it clear that you are going to go into detail. Most people don’t want to read dozens of pages, so still try to say what you need to say concisely. You can always send a letter or email every week or so if you plan to write more than a page or two. That can help to keep your communications short enough to invite them to read it through to the end.
Content (verbal or written)
It helps to identify the bill by their proper letters and numbers (and optionally by name), and to clearly state whether you want them to vote FOR or AGAINST the bill. It can be that simple, and could take well under a minute to leave the message. It’s good to provide some basic contact info. It helps them know if you are a constituent in their district. Contact info also helps them follow up with you; it also helps to tell them if you want them to respond/follow up or not. If you wish to go into more detail about why you want them to support or oppose a bill, you can spend a little time communicating that.