State Rep. Zach Dieken believes abortion amounts to murder and those involved should face a similar penalty. He asserted the recently passed “fetal heartbeat” bill does not go far enough. “I think abortion is the black eye on our culture as far as this generation and previous generations as far as 1973,” Dieken, R-Granville, told the Times Pilot Tuesday.“The bill doesn’t do anything.” The recently-elected state trooper, who represents western Buena Vista County, was one of two Republicans in the Iowa House to vote against the signature legislation Gov. Kim Reynolds proposed after the Iowa Supreme Court struck down a previous ban the Legislature imposed. “Abortion is the murder of a human being, and the bill provided no justice for the life taken,” Dieken said. “There’s no punishment for a woman who has an abortion. There’s no punishment for doctors who help give one.”  The bill empowers the Iowa Board of Medicine to impose unspecified penalties for doctors who perform abortions; women seeking abortions aren’t penalized under the legislation, House File 732.  A freshman Republican representative who was endorsed by Reynolds over a Republican incumbent, Dieken admitted that his stance has ruffled some feathers. He’s taken heat from his constituents, who wanted some form of an abortion ban. Republicans outnumber Democrats in Dieken’s House District by a five-to-one margin. Dieken’s district encompasses Cherokee, Buena Vista, O’Brien and Osceola counties. Dieken sees his no vote as a matter of principle. Penalties that are at the discretion of the board of medicine don’t go far enough, Dieken declared. “We already have laws against killing people in Iowa, so it wouldn’t be a matter of coming up with another law,” Dieken said. “It would just been acting legislation that says unborn children in the womb are human beings that are protected by our laws.” Dieken hopes to see “equal protection” for infants before birth. He feels the “fetal heartbeat” bill didn’t meet that threshold. The bill bans an abortion by the time a fetal heartbeat is detected, six weeks after conception. Dieken wondered why the Republican leadership didn’t go further in the special session.  He reckoned that the Iowa Supreme Court or a federal court with a pro-choice judge would’ve blocked whatever legislation the Republican-dominated Legislature would’ve come up with. And a Polk County judge did. Last month, Judge Joseph Seidlin granted an injunction to Planned Parenthood of the Heartland and other plaintiffs as the law hears a full challenge in state court. The legislation will likely be heard by the Iowa Supreme Court at some point. The legislation will be tied up for months. Dieken believes the Legislature wasted its one opportunity at defining abortion as murder. He hoped the Legislature would’ve discussed an abortion ban in the upcoming session. Instead, the Legislature passed the fetal heartbeat law during a one-day session July 11. “I was sad that there really wasn’t any type of chance for a real discussion, because we were called down there for a day,” Dieken said. “We were told this is the bill we were going to vote yes or no on. Even if people are not necessarily on board with my ideas and convictions, at least we could have hashed that out from January to May. I was really disappointed by the whole effort.”  Dieken intends to propose his own legislation.  He doesn’t think his Republican colleagues to go along, but it’s a top priority of his to create legislation that defines abortion as murder. “I would say it was a no vote for the bill because I don’t think it was a good bill, but it was also a no vote on calling a special session,” Dieken said.“Because now that the heart-beat bill has passed and it’s in the courts, we’re not going to bring it up again until however many years that takes to get disputed.”