AP/Hunter edit
07/12/23
Iowa’s Republican-led Legislature passed a bill banning most abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy during a marathon special session Tuesday that continued late into the night. Gov. Kim Reynolds immediately said in a statement she would sign the bill on Friday.
The bill passed with exclusively Republican support in a rare, one-day legislative burst lasting more than 14 hours over the vocal – and sometimes tense – objections from Democratic lawmakers and abortion advocates protesting at the Capitol.
Reynolds ordered the rare session after the state Supreme Court declined in June to reinstate a practically identical law that she signed in 2018. Her statement said, “The Iowa Supreme Court questioned whether this legislature would pass the same law they did in 2018, and today they have a clear answer. The voices of Iowans and their democratically elected representatives cannot be ignored any longer, and justice for the unborn should not be delayed.”
Democratic lawmakers proposed amendments to the language to expand its limited exceptions, but they were swiftly rejected. House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst said “Iowa women are less free than they were a week ago and it’s because of the work of Republicans in the legislature and the governor.”
Abortion is currently legal in Iowa up to 20 weeks of pregnancy. The legislation will take immediate effect with the governor’s signature on Friday. It will prohibit almost all abortions once cardiac activity can be detected, which is usually around six weeks of pregnancy and before many women know they are pregnant.
Preparations were already underway to quickly file legal challenges in court and get the measure blocked, once Reynolds signs it into law. In a statement from ACLU of Iowa Director Mark Stringer, he said his organization, along with Planned Parenthood and the Emma Goldman Clinic remain committed to protecting the reproductive rights of Iowans, and will file suit to what he called a “reckless, cruel law.”
Planned Parenthood North Central States has said they will refer patients out of state if they’re scheduled for abortions in the next few weeks. The organization will continue to provide care to patients who present before cardiac activity is detected.
Laws such as Iowa’s ban abortion when a “fetal heartbeat” can be detected incorporate a concept that does not easily translate to medical science. That’s because at the point where advanced technology can detect that first visual flutter, the embryo isn’t yet a fetus, and it doesn’t have a heart. Medical experts say an embryo is termed a fetus beginning in the 11th week of pregnancy.
A new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research has found Most U.S. adults oppose the deepest bans on abortion. Most Americans also believe there should be some restrictions. The poll was conducted in late June, around the first anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision reversing Roe v. Wade.