AP (edited)
07/15/23
An Iowa ban on most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy was signed into law Friday, forcing clinics to scramble to arrange out-of-state care for many women whose access immediately ended as a judge considered whether to temporarily put a hold on the law.
A court hearing took place Friday, but the judge said his ruling on whether to halt the new law as the courts assess its constitutionality will likely not come until Monday at the earliest.
Governor Kim Reynolds signed the measure into law in front of 2,000 conservative Christians.
The new legislation prohibits 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. That’s a dramatic shift for women in Iowa, where abortion had been legal up to 20 weeks of pregnancy.
The ACLU of Iowa, Planned Parenthood North Central States and the Emma Goldman Clinic filed the legal challenge Wednesday and representatives spoke at the court hearing Friday.
After the hearing, District Court Judge Joseph Seidlin said he could not imagine “anything that would be more insulting to either side” than for him to “flippantly” rule from the bench Friday.
Before Reynolds signed the law, she mentioned the legal fight, which she called an attempt to stop the will of the people. She added that the passage of the bill this session by a wider margin than the 2018 legislation, quote, “sends an unmistakable message.”
The bill passed with exclusively Republican support late on Tuesday at the conclusion of a rare, 14-hour special legislative session.
Planned Parenthood North Central States President and CEO Ruth Richardson said, “Patients’ lives are deeply impacted every day that this law is allowed to stand.” She remained hopeful there would not be a long interruption in services. Richardson said there have been hundreds of phone calls to prepare patients amid the uncertainty.
There are limited circumstances under the measure that would allow for abortion after the point in a pregnancy where cardiac activity is detected: rape, if reported to law enforcement or a health provider within 45 days; incest, if reported within 145 days; if the fetus has a fetal abnormality “incompatible with life”; or if the pregnancy is endangering the life of the pregnant woman.
Most Republican-led states have drastically limited abortion access in the year since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and handed authority on abortion law to the states.