DES MOINES, Iowa – An Iowa judge ruled that the state strict abortion law will take effect on Monday, preventing most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant.
The law was approved last year, but a judge blocked its application. The Iowa Supreme Court reiterated in June that there is no constitutional right to abortion in the state and ordered the suspension lifted. That translated into Monday’s district court judge’s ruling ordering the law to go into effect next Monday at 8 a.m. Central time.
Lawyers representing abortion providers asked Judge Jeffrey Farrell for warning before allowing the law to take effect, saying a amortization period was needed to provide continuity of services. Iowa requires pregnant women to wait 24 hours for an abortion after an initial appointment. Abortion was legal in the state up to 20 weeks of pregnancy.
The high court’s order gave Iowa Republican leaders a decisive victory after years of legislative and legal battles.
Iowa will join more than a dozen states where access to abortion has been drastically restricted in the two years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Wade. At the moment, 14 states have near-total bans at all stages of pregnancy, and three states ban abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy. This is approximately when a fetal heartbeat can be detected.
The Republican-controlled Iowa Legislature passed the law in a special session last July, and a legal challenge was immediately filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, Planned Parenthood North Central States and the Emma Goldman Clinic. The law went into effect just days before a district judge temporarily blocked it.
Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds said the state Supreme Court “upheld the will of the people of Iowa,” and Republican Attorney General Brenna Bird called it “a historic victory.”
There are limited circumstances under Iowa law that would allow abortion after six weeks of pregnancy: rape, if reported to authorities or a health care provider within 45 days; incest, if reported within 145 days; if the fetus presents any anomaly “incompatible with life”; or if the pregnancy puts the mother’s life at risk.
The state medical council defined practice standards earlier this year, although the rules do not describe how the board would determine noncompliance or what the appropriate disciplinary action might be.
Representatives from Planned Parenthood and the Emma Goldman Clinic have indicated that they will continue to provide abortion services in Iowa in compliance with the law when it takes effect.
In June, Ruth Richardson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States, also said the organization spent the last year making “long-term regional investments” in preparation for this outcome, including expanding facilities in Mankato, Minnesota, and in Omaha. , Nebraska, – both cities near Iowa.
Planned Parenthood in Iowa ceased abortion services in two Iowa cities last year, including in Des Moines. Two of the state’s five Planned Parenthood clinics offer in-person abortion services and three offer medication abortions.
People in Des Moines and surrounding areas seeking an abortion traveled about 35 miles north to Ames.
Alex Sharp, who manages the Ames facility, said staff have been discussing how they will bring empathy to conversations with people seeking abortion beyond the point of it being legal in Iowa after the lockdown is lifted. There’s “the sensitivity of being told that you’re too far along and now it’s too late: ‘You have to, you know, leave and go somewhere else and you have to travel and you’re going to have to miss work again. ‘”
“A lot of people don’t know this happened,” Sharp said of the stricter law. “So these are difficult conversations that we are having and have been having and will continue to have.”
Sharp said facilities offering abortions offered additional appointments in June, before the Iowa Supreme Court’s ruling, and appointments during July were fully booked.
“It’s entirely possible they are more than six weeks old, but we will scan them,” she said of people who have appointments scheduled for after the lockdown is lifted.
Sarah Traxler, Planned Parenthood’s regional medical director, said a law banning abortions after cardiac activity can be detected is “tricky.”
Because six weeks is approximately, Traxler said, “we don’t necessarily have plans to stop people from giving birth at a certain gestational age.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 44% of Iowa’s 3,761 total abortions in 2021 occurred at or before six weeks of gestational age. Only six miscarriages occurred at the 21-week mark or beyond.
In other states with bans that take effect around six weeks into pregnancy, the number of abortions has dropped by about half.
In its 4-3 opinion last month, the majority of the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that Iowa’s abortion laws must be judged by the question of whether the government has a legitimate interest in restricting the procedure, not whether there is a too heavy a burden for people seeking access to abortion. .
The decision was celebrated by Iowa’s conservative leaders, who have advocated for access to abortion for decades. Chuck Hurley, vice president of the conservative Christian organization The Family Leader, said “bad judges more than 51 years ago” allowed access to abortion in Iowa.
As Hurley celebrated the victory and the “great strides in protecting the most innocent among us,” he alluded to the work that still needs to be done.
“Fourteen states now protect babies from the moment of conception,” he said, “and Iowa should be 15th.”
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Associated Press reporter Geoff Mulvihill contributed from Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
