DES MOINES, Iowa — An Iowa judge has ruled that the state's strict abortion law will take effect Monday, stopping most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, before many ladies know they’re pregnant.
The law was passed last yr, but a judge had blocked its enforcement. The Iowa Supreme Court affirmed in June that there isn’t any constitutional right to abortion within the state and ordered the ban to be lifted. This led the district judge to rule Monday that the law should take effect next Monday at 8 a.m. Central Time.
Lawyers representing abortion providers asked Judge Jeffrey Farrell for a deadline before the law could take effect. They said a buffer period was needed to make sure continuity of services. In Iowa, pregnant women must wait 24 hours for an abortion after an initial consultation. Abortion was legal within the state until 20 weeks of pregnancy.
The Supreme Court's ruling marked a decisive victory for Iowa's Republican leadership after years of legislative and legal wrangling.
Iowa joins greater than a dozen states which have severely restricted access to abortion within the two years for the reason that U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Currently, 14 states have almost completely banned abortion in any respect stages of pregnancy, and three states – Iowa will develop into 4 – ban abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy.
Abortion access is more likely to be a serious issue within the 2024 election, especially as Vice President Kamala Harris seeks to steer the Democratic Party. Harris has said “everything is at stake” in relation to reproductive health within the November election and has traveled across the country to lift awareness of the problem, including in Des Moines a few yr ago after the stricter law was first passed.
Iowa's Republican-dominated legislature passed the law in a special session last July. The American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, Planned Parenthood North Central States and the Emma Goldman Clinic immediately filed suit against the law. The law was in effect for just a couple of days before a district judge temporarily blocked it.
Republican Governor Kim Reynolds said the state Supreme Court had “vindicated the will of the people of Iowa,” and Republican Attorney General Brenna Bird called it a “landmark victory.”
Under Iowa law, there are a couple of circumstances through which abortion remains to be possible after the sixth week of pregnancy: rape, if reported to authorities or a health care provider inside 45 days; incest, if reported inside 145 days; if the fetus has an abnormality “incompatible with life”; or if the pregnancy endangers the lifetime of the mother.
The state medical board established medical standards earlier this yr, but the principles don’t specify how the board will handle noncompliance or what disciplinary motion can be appropriate.
Representatives from Planned Parenthood and the Emma Goldman Clinic have indicated that they may proceed to supply legal abortion services in Iowa once the law takes effect.
In June, Ruth Richardson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States, said the organization had made “long-term regional investments” over the past yr in preparation for that final result. These included expanding facilities in Mankato, Minnesota, and Omaha, Nebraska — each cities near Iowa.
Planned Parenthood in Iowa stopped providing abortion services in two cities within the state, including Des Moines, last yr. Two of the state's five Planned Parenthood clinics offer on-site abortion services, and three offer medication abortions.
People from Des Moines and the encompassing area looking for abortions have traveled about 35 miles north to Ames.
Alex Sharp, who runs the Ames facility, said that after the ban is lifted, conversations with patients can be difficult and that staff can be empathetic. It's “sensitive to hear 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 miss work again.'”
“A lot of people don’t know this happened,” Sharp said of the stricter law.
Facilities that perform abortions offered additional appointments in June before the Iowa Supreme Court's decision, and appointments were fully booked for your entire month of July, Sharp said.
“It's quite possible they're older than six weeks, but we'll scan them,” she said of people that have made appointments for after the lockdown is lifted.
Sarah Traxler, regional medical director of Planned Parenthood, called a law banning abortions after cardiac activity may be detected “delicate.”
Since six weeks is an approximate time-frame, Traxler said, “we don't necessarily plan to terminate delivery at a certain gestational age.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 44% of the three,761 abortions performed in Iowa in 2021 occurred at six weeks of pregnancy or earlier. Only six abortions occurred at 21 weeks or later.
In other states, where the ban comes into effect across the sixth week of pregnancy, the variety of abortions has fallen by about half.
In its 4-3 ruling last month, the Iowa Supreme Court majority held that Iowa's abortion laws ought to be judged by whether the federal government has a legitimate interest in restricting the procedure, not by whether the burden on people looking for access to an abortion is simply too great.
While Hurley celebrated the victory and the “great progress made in protecting the most innocent among us,” he pointed to the work that also must be done.
“Fourteen states today protect babies from the moment of conception,” he said, “and Iowa should be the 15th.”
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