DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The director of the Iowa Department of Human Services has denied a petition by some Republicans who want the state to stop using public money to pay for abortions in cases of rape and incest or fetal abnormalities. Forty-one House GOP members filed the petition last month seeking to end Medicaid payments for such abortions, contending the state program violates state law. DHS Director Chuck Palmer in a letter Friday to Rep. Dawn Pettengill, of Mount Auburn, says banning the payments would violate federal funding requirements and would jeopardize all federal Medicaid funding Iowa receives, which is about $2.1 billion. Palmer says legislative language didn’t give a clear mandate to change the program’s practice of paying for such abortions, which are legal under federal law.