DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa judge has ruled that the state’s strict abortion law will take effect Monday, preventing most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant.
The law was passed last year, but a judge had blocked its enforcement. The Iowa Supreme Court affirmed in June that there is no constitutional right to abortion in 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 necessary to ensure continuity of services. In Iowa, pregnant women must wait 24 hours for an abortion after an initial consultation. Abortion was legal in 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 more than a dozen states that have severely restricted access to abortion in the two years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Currently, 14 states have almost completely banned abortion at all stages of pregnancy, and three states – Iowa will become four – ban abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy.
Abortion access is likely to 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 at stake” when it comes to reproductive health in the November election and has traveled across the country to raise awareness of the issue, including in Des Moines about a year 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 few days before a district judge temporarily blocked it.
“Today is a victory for life,” Republican Governor Kim Reynolds said in a statement Tuesday.
Under Iowa law, there are a few circumstances in which abortion is still possible after the sixth week of pregnancy: rape, if reported to authorities or a doctor within 45 days; incest, if reported within 145 days; if the fetus has an abnormality “incompatible with life”; or if the pregnancy endangers the life of the mother.
The state medical board established medical standards earlier this year, but the rules do not specify how the board will handle noncompliance or what disciplinary action would be appropriate.
Representatives from Planned Parenthood and the Emma Goldman Clinic have indicated that they will continue to provide 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 year in preparation for that outcome. These included expanding facilities in Mankato, Minnesota, and Omaha, Nebraska — both cities near Iowa.
Planned Parenthood in Iowa stopped providing abortion services in two cities in the state, including Des Moines, last year. 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 surrounding area seeking abortions have traveled about 35 miles north to Ames.
Alex Sharp, who runs the Ames facility, said that once the ban is lifted, conversations with patients will be challenging and that staff will 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 the 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 who 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 can 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 3,761 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 around the sixth week of pregnancy, the number 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 should be judged by whether the government has a legitimate interest in restricting the procedure, not by whether the burden on people seeking access to an abortion is too great.
The decision was celebrated by Iowa’s conservative politicians, who have opposed abortion for decades. Chuck Hurley, vice president of the conservative Christian organization The Family Leader, said “bad judges have allowed abortion in Iowa for over 51 years.”
While Hurley celebrated the victory and the “great progress in protecting the most innocent among us,” he pointed to the work that still needs to be done.
“Fourteen states today protect babies from the moment of conception,” he said, “and Iowa should be the 15th.”
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Associated Press reporter Geoff Mulvihill reported from Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
