By Hannah Fingerhut | Associated Press
DES MOINES, Iowa — An Iowa judge ruled that the state’s strict abortion law will take effect Monday, blocking most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant.
The law passed last year, but a judge blocked its implementation. The Iowa Supreme Court reiterated in June that there is no constitutional right to abortion in the state and ordered that stay lifted. That resulted in a district court judge’s ruling Monday that the law will go into effect next Monday at 8 a.m. Central time.
Lawyers representing abortion providers asked Judge Jeffrey Farrell to provide notice before allowing the law to go into effect, saying a buffer period was needed to ensure continuity of services. Iowa requires pregnant women to wait 24 hours for an abortion after getting an initial consultation. Abortion was legal in the state up to 20 weeks of pregnancy.
The Supreme Court order delivered a decisive victory to Iowa Republican leaders after years of legislative and legal battles.
Iowa will join more than a dozen states where abortion access has been severely restricted in the two years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Currently, 14 states have near-total bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy, and three states — Iowa will become four — have bans after about six weeks of pregnancy.
Abortion access will be a major issue in the 2024 election, especially as Vice President Kamala Harris seeks to lead the Democratic Party. Harris has said “everything is on the line” when it comes to reproductive health in the November election and has traveled across the country to draw attention to the issue, including in Des Moines about a year ago after the stricter law was initially passed.
The Republican-controlled Iowa Legislature passed the law in a special session last July, and a lawsuit was immediately filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, Planned Parenthood North Central States and the Emma Goldman Clinic. The law remained in effect for only a few days before a district court 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.”
Iowa law provides limited circumstances that would allow abortion after six weeks of pregnancy: rape, if reported to law enforcement or a health care professional within 45 days; incest, if reported within 145 days; if the fetus has an abnormality “incompatible with life”; or if the pregnancy endangers the mother’s life.
The state medical board set standards of practice earlier this year, though the rules do not specify how the board would determine noncompliance or what the appropriate disciplinary action might be.
Representatives from Planned Parenthood and the Emma Goldman Clinic said they will continue to provide abortion services in Iowa under the law when it goes into effect.
In June, Ruth Richardson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States, also said the organization had spent the past year making “long-term regional investments” in anticipation of that outcome, including expanding facilities in Mankato, Minnesota, and Omaha, Nebraska, both cities near Iowa.
Last year, Planned Parenthood stopped offering abortion services in two Iowa cities, including Des Moines. Two of Planned Parenthood’s five clinics in the state offer in-person abortion services and three offer medication abortions.
People in and around Des Moines seeking abortions traveled about 35 miles north to Ames.
Alex Sharp, who manages the Ames facility, said conversations with patients will be difficult once the ban is lifted and staff will be empathetic. There is “the sensitivity of being told that you’re too far along and it’s too late now: ‘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.
Abortion facilities had been offering additional appointments in June before the Iowa Supreme Court ruling, and appointments for the entire month of July were fully booked, Sharp said.
“It’s entirely possible that they’re older than six weeks, but we’ll scan them,” she said of people who have appointments scheduled after the lockdown is lifted.
Sarah Traxler, Planned Parenthood’s regional medical director, said a law banning abortions after cardiac activity is detected is “tricky.”
Since six weeks is an approximate length of time, Traxler said, “we don’t necessarily intend to terminate the pregnancy at a certain gestational age.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 44% of the 3,761 total abortions in Iowa in 2021 occurred at or before six weeks of gestation. Only six abortions occurred at or before 21 weeks.
In other states where the ban takes effect at six weeks of pregnancy, the number of abortions has fallen by about half.
In its 4-3 opinion last month, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled by a majority that Iowa’s abortion laws should be judged on whether the government has a legitimate interest in restricting the procedure, rather than whether the burden is too great on people seeking access to abortions.
The decision was hailed by Iowa conservative leaders, who have campaigned against abortion access for decades. Chuck Hurley, vice president of the conservative Christian organization The Family Leader, said that “bad judges have allowed abortion access in Iowa for over 51 years.”
As Hurley celebrated the victory and the “great strides made in protecting the most innocent among us,” he hinted at the work that remains to be done.
“Fourteen states now protect babies from the moment of conception,” he said, “and Iowa should be the 15th.”
Associated Press writer Geoff Mulvihill contributed to this report from Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
