A bill that prohibits most abortions in Iowa after the sixth week of pregnancy was signed into law by Republican Governor Kim Reynolds on Friday.
“This week, in a rare and historic special session, the Iowa legislature voted for a second time to reject the inhumanity of abortion and pass the foetal heartbeat law,” she said in remarks before signing the measure at the Family Leadership Summit.
After Reynolds called for a special legislative session last week to restrict the process in the state, the new law went into force the next day. However, it has already been challenged in court by a coalition of abortion clinics in the state.
This week, the Republican-controlled legislature of a state passed a bill that would make it illegal for doctors to perform most abortions if foetal or embryonic cardiac activity is found, which can happen as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, before most women are even aware they are pregnant.
This does not apply in the case of a miscarriage, a threat to the life of the pregnant mother, or the presence of a fatal abnormality in the foetus. Pregnancies stemming from rapes reported within 45 days and incests reported within 140 days are likewise excluded.
While the bill makes clear that it is “not to be construed to impose civil or criminal liability on a woman upon whom an abortion is performed in violation of the division,” it leaves it up to the Iowa board of medicine to decide how physicians should be punished for breaking the law, leaving some ambiguity as to how the law ought to be enforced in the meantime.
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision last year striking down Roe v. Wade, Iowa joins a growing list of Republican-led states that have championed sweeping restrictions on abortion.
Reynolds’ effort for abortion restrictions comes after the Iowa Supreme Court, in a 3-3 tie, decided to overturn a block on the state’s 2018 six-week abortion ban.
“The Iowa Supreme Court questioned whether this legislature would pass the same law they did in 2018, and today they have a clear answer,” Reynolds said in a statement Tuesday after the bill’s passing. Justice for the unborn should not be delayed, and the views of Iowans and their democratically elected legislators must be heard.
Pro-choice advocates have been vocal in their opposition to the state’s abortion prohibition. Planned Parenthood North Central States CEO Ruth Richardson referred to the abortion ban as “a devastating blow to reproductive freedom.”
Richardson stated, “Iowans deserve to decide what is best for their bodies and futures.” Our efforts to ensure access to legal abortion and reproductive health care will continue. We will use every available tool to secure Iowans’ right to bodily autonomy for themselves and future generations.
