The GOP-controlled Iowa legislature voted to ban abortion after about six weeks, barring a few exceptions for incest and rape.
Topline
Iowa’s Republican-led legislature passed a bill banning most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy following a lengthy special session ending late Tuesday night, a divisive move that is likely to face legal challenges once signed into law and will add the state to a growing number of right-leaning states to severely curtail reproductive rights after the Supreme Court voted to overturn the constitutional right to abortion last year.Key Facts
The bill was passed in a protracted special legislative session called by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) to “address the issue of abortion expeditiously” after the state’s Supreme Court reached a deadlock in June and declined to reinstate a similar law she signed in 2018.
The measure, which passed just after 11 p.m. and mostly along party lines, outlaws most abortions after cardiac activity can be detected, which usually happens around six weeks of pregnancy, well before many people are aware they are pregnant and weeks before an actual heart will develop or the embryo is even considered a fetus.
The law had limited exceptions for rape and incest, provided these are reported to law enforcement or health providers within a set time limit, as well as miscarriage, medical emergencies that endanger the life of the pregnant person and fetal abnormalities that are “incompatible with life.
