GOP-controlled Iowa legislature votes to ban abortion after about six weeks

Iowa’s Republican-controlled legislature on Tuesday passed a bill banning most abortions after about six weeks.

The legislation was passed during a rare one-day special session called by Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) for the “sole purpose” of enacting new restrictions on abortion. Iowa’s House and Senate passed the legislation along partisan lines late Tuesday after hours of hearings and sometimes heated protests. It is expected to face legal challenges. Abortion is currently legal in Iowa up to 22 weeks of pregnancy.

Hundreds of protesters on both sides of the issue packed the Iowa Capitol in Des Moines, some shouting “Bans off our bodies” while others yelled “Abortion is murder.” According to the Des Moines Register, at one point protesters had to be separated by a state trooper.

After the legislation cleared House and Senate committees Tuesday afternoon, lawmakers began floor debates that sometimes became contentious. “If they are not ready to have a baby, they shouldn’t have sex. A lot of people need to review their birds and bees,” Republican Rep. Brad Sherman said at point, while Democrats called the bill “disrespectful” and “obscene.”

Once it is signed into law by Reynolds, the bill, which passed 56-34 in the House and 32-17 in the Senate, will add Iowa to the wave of conservative-leaning states — including North Dakota and South Dakota — that have put in place abortion restrictions since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion last summer. The Iowa restrictions further limit access to the procedure in the Midwest.

“I believe the pro-life movement is the most important human rights cause of our time,” Reynolds said last week as she ordered the special session and promised to sign the bill.

After the Supreme Court ruling last year, Reynolds asked a district court to allow a roughly six-week abortion ban that had passed in 2018 but was challenged in court to take effect. After the court declined to do so, she then took the request to the Iowa Supreme Court, which deadlocked on the matter earlier this year. After the deadline, Reynolds called for the special session.

During Tuesday’s House debate, some Democrats quoted one of the justices, Thomas Waterman, who called the state’s attempt to revive the 2018 six-week abortion ban “an unprecedented effort to judicially revive a statute that was declared unconstitutional.”

The current legislation bans most abortions after fetal cardiac activity has been detected, often around six weeks into a pregnancy. The bill says a provider must perform an abdominal ultrasound on a patient, and if “a fetal heartbeat” is detected, an abortion is prohibited.

The measure includes a few exceptions, such as for rape and incest, provided that the cases are reported to law enforcement. It also includes exceptions for fetal abnormalities that are “incompatible with life” and for medical emergencies in which a pregnant person faces death or serious harm to their health.

Democrats said the legislation would put someone experiencing a miscarriage at risk by forcing doctors to take extra time determining whether they qualify for an abortion. It also sets unrealistic time constraints for someone to report rape or incest to qualify for an abortion exception under the bill, they said.

Prior to the bill passing, Democratic state Sen. Janice Weiner said it shouldn’t go into effect immediately. The rushed process shows “incredible disrespect” to Iowa doctors who would need time to understand the new rules, she said.

Committee hearings sometimes became tense with the sound of protesters outside the room pouring in.

Francesca Turner, a Des Moines gynecologist, said the bill doesn’t make clear when doctors can step in during pregnancy complications. “At what point when your wife or your daughter or your sister is having a medical emergency during a pregnancy do I get to save her life?” Turner asked.

Katie Buck, a West Des Moines resident, testified alongside her son, who was born with trisomy 18, a genetic complication caused by an extra chromosome. Under the legislation, she said, her son’s condition would qualify as a fetal abnormality that would allow an abortion.

“Alex is 7 years old. How can he be incompatible with life?” she said. “You have no idea how hard we had to fight against this ‘fatal fetal anomaly’ label to get him the medical care he needed to survive.”

Abortion rights advocates are pledging to fight the measure. In a statement released before it passed, Planned Parenthood North Central States said it will challenge the law in court and refer patients out of state if they need an abortion during the next few weeks.

“We intend to show that in numbers on Tuesday at the Capitol, reminding those politicians really of the fact that they will be held accountable for every vote that they take to strip Iowans of their rights,” said Mazie Stilwell, the director of public affairs at Planned Parenthood Advocates of Iowa.