Iowa legislature passes six-week abortion ban in special session

By Sharon Bernstein and Julia Harte

(Reuters) -Iowa's Republican-controlled legislature passed a bill in a special session on Tuesday banning abortions as soon as fetal cardiac activity can be detected, after around six weeks of pregnancy and before most women know they are pregnant.

The ban is expected to swiftly be signed into law by Republican Governor Kim Reynolds, who called the special session after the Midwestern state's Supreme Court on June 16 blocked a similar measure passed in 2018 from going into effect.

State senators passed the bill by 32-17 late Tuesday night, mostly along party lines, after hours of public comment by lawmakers and Iowans on both sides of the issue, as abortion rights activists held loud protests in and around the State Capitol building.

The bill will outlaw abortions with limited exceptions after cardiac activity can be detected, weeks before the fetus has developed an actual heart. It makes no exceptions for the age of the pregnant person or any mental health condition.

Before the final vote, Democratic lawmakers fruitlessly sought to loosen the bill. State Representative Timi Brown-Powers proposed amending the bill to grant exceptions for pregnant children aged 12 or under.

"For the love of Pete, that's child abuse," said Brown-Powers. "We're standing here debating a bill to save babies, but yet we would put a 12-year-old, an 11-year-old, a 10-year-old through this?"

Republican state Representative Shannon Lundgren responded that the bill allows abortions after six weeks in the case of a medical emergency, and successfully urged her colleagues to reject the amendment.

Abortions after six weeks would also be allowed in the case of rape, incest, a fetal abnormality that a doctor reasonably believes is incompatible with life and in the event that continuing the pregnancy would create a serious risk of irreversible harm to the woman's body.

The state Senate's Republican president, Amy Sinclair, also highlighted the bill's exceptions on Tuesday, and said the law would protect mothers as much as unborn fetuses.

"This bill does not hold a woman criminally or civilly liable for having an abortion," she said.

Iowa's 2018 ban on abortions after about six weeks was put on hold by the courts while Roe v. Wade and similar state constitutional protections were in effect, but both have now been reversed.

Iowa's highest court had deadlocked in the 3-3 decision in June, leaving abortion legal in Iowa for up to 20 weeks of pregnancy.

However, the three judges who opposed reinstating the 2018 law said they were doing so to avoid legislating from the bench, leading Republican lawmakers to believe they have a good chance of beating future challenges by passing a new law now.

Fourteen states have banned most abortions since the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2022 overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case and stripped away a nationwide right to abortion.

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Iowa asked abortion rights supporters to contact their legislators, sign up to speak against the bill and rally against the measure at Tuesday's session.

The Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition advocacy group also asked its members to contact their lawmakers to support the bill.

(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein and Julia Harte; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Jonathan Oatis)