Iowa Republicans pass ban on most abortions after 6 weeks

Geoff Bennett:

Lawmakers in Iowa passed a bill late last night that would ban most abortions in the state after six weeks.

Iowa is the latest in a series of Republican-led states to pass abortion restrictions since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe last year. Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds is expected to sign the bill into law on Friday.

Joining us now to talk about the nation's patchwork of abortion laws is Erin Murphy, Des Moines bureau chief for The Gazette, and Sarah Varney, senior correspondent for KFF Health News.

So, Erin, as we mentioned, Iowa Republicans passed this bill late last night. Here is a portion of the hours of debate.

State Sen. Amy Sinclair (R-IA):

This bill, Iowa's heartbeat law, ensures that the right to life is protected, the most fundamental human right that is enshrined in both our state and federal Constitutions. Neither the U.S. Constitution, nor Iowa's state Constitution provides any right to reproductive freedom.

And, frankly, when we wade past all the pretty words surrounding reproductive freedom and women's right to choose, what we find is the truth. Those are nothing more than terms used in advocating for the willingness to kill a baby through all nine months of pregnancy.

State Sen. Janice Weiner (D-IA):

Abortions have always happened and will happen. The question is, will they be safe and legal? Because if they're not, women will be harmed. Some may die.

Look, I guarantee you wouldn't want me flying your airplane, because I'm not a licensed pilot, or drilling on your teeth, because I never went to dental school. We citizen politicians should know our place. And it's not in the exam room.

Geoff Bennett:

So, abortion in Iowa had been legal for up to 20 weeks of pregnancy. How did lawmakers there arrive at this legislation?

Erin Murphy, Des Moines Bureau Chief, The Gazette:

So, this is actually Iowa Republicans' second attempt to pass this, what they call the fetal heartbeat bill, as you noted, what a lot of people believe can be detected at six weeks of pregnancy, so very early, often before the woman even is aware that she's pregnant.

They passed a very similar bill in 2018. And Governor Reynolds signed it into law. Then it was immediately blocked by the courts and stayed that way until after the Iowa and U.S. Supreme Courts in 2022 delivered rulings that sort of reset the legal landscape for abortion, obviously, the U.S. Supreme Court being the repeal of Roe v. Wade.

There was a very similar ruling at the almost the exact same time by the Iowa Supreme Court. Once that kind of reset the legal landscape here, the governor asked its state courts to reinstate that 2018 law. Just this past month, the Iowa Supreme Court declined to do that in a split decision.

And so Republican legislators went back to work, called the special session to once again pass this law, with the expectation that it will get back to the Iowa Supreme Court again and, under a new kind of legal arena, will be approved this time, will be considered constitutional by the state Supreme Court. That's the goal of state House Republicans.

Geoff Bennett:

How have advocates on both sides of this issue reacted to the Iowa state legislature now passing this six-week abortion ban?

Erin Murphy:

Well, what I can tell you is, just yesterday, during the special session, a lot of people came to the Iowa Capitol. It was a pretty remarkable scene.

I have been covering the Capitol for 10 years, and I can only think of one other instance that even comes close to what I saw yesterday, just thousands of people at the Capitol, the vast, vast majority of which were abortions' right advocates. There were the so-called pro-life, the anti-abortion, crowd as well. They were there demonstrating as well, but far, far outnumbered by the abortion rights people, demonstrated long and loud.

They were there for six or seven hours of the day. It was pretty remarkable. And we have seen public polling in Iowa that shows the majority of Iowans support abortion being legal in some or most cases. So it'll be interesting to see as this law presumably plays out in the courts.

We have already just recently heard that a legal challenge has been entered already into this new law before it's even signed into law by Governor Reynolds tomorrow. So this will go through the courts again, and it will be interesting to see how the public reacts this time around and whether it affects the elections in 2024 here.

Geoff Bennett:

Sarah Varney, abortion is banned in almost all cases in most of the states bordering Iowa, but abortion is protected legally in Illinois and Minnesota, two states that are led by Democrats.

How might those states become destinations for Iowa women seeking abortions? And how are those states preparing?

Sarah Varney, KFF Health News:

Well, we actually have a lot of examples of what happens when a state essentially passes a ban like this.

We — this happened in Georgia recently. We have a, map actually, we can put up that was done by my KFF colleagues in the women's health team, and you can really see this sort of sea of red. And you can see what happens now with Iowa.

As you mentioned, we imagine that women will go to Minnesota and Illinois. One of the things that we have seen really is a lot of confusion about what's legal, so women even showing up at clinics in Minnesota or Illinois saying to OB-GYNs: I need an abortion. I know it's illegal.

And the staff at the clinics having to tell these women that: No, actually, here, you're safe. It's legal.

The other thing we're really seeing now is a delay in the procedures. So, women who may have been able to get an abortion at seven or eight weeks, now it's at 10 or 12 or even 13 weeks, and at higher risk in their pregnancy.

The other thing we're really seeing too, and this will affect these women in Iowa, is miscarriage, as we have talked about other times on the show, is incredibly common, and nonviable pregnancies. So when Iowa — when this it goes into effect in Iowa, it will not just impact women who want to end early unintended pregnancies, but also women with intended pregnancies that are not progressing.

So we have seen this in many, many cases, women in Wisconsin having to go to Illinois when their fetus is not developing a skull, for instance, or has no kidneys. And it's quite traumatic for these patients having to travel.

The other thing that we're going to see and we're already starting to see is far more women actually giving birth to children that they did not intend to have. So there's some statistical modeling out of Texas recently that found, after S.B.8 went into effect, which was the six-week ban in Texas, that there's about 10,000 additional forced births that were estimated there.

Just one thing to note, though, for women in Iowa and elsewhere is that medication abortion remains legal. It depends on sort of how and where you get it. There's groups like Aid Access that are continuing to mail medication abortion into states even where it's technically illegal.

Geoff Bennett:

We have seen how the anti-abortion movement has really shifted to the state left level after the Supreme Court overturned Roe. What can you tell us about the legal challenges to some of these state bans, to include Iowa?

Sarah Varney:

Well, I mean, we have seen quite a number of successes from the anti-abortion groups recently.

One thing I will mention, though, is, just yesterday, a group of advocates in Idaho filed a lawsuit against Idaho's teen abortion travel ban. So, this is a travel ban that went into effect on May 5. We did a "NewsHour" segment about it, if anyone wants to go back and watch it.

But these groups have largely work with women who are victims of domestic violence and sexual violence — there's just an abortion fund involved — they filed in federal court yesterday a lawsuit saying that this infringes on the interstate right to — the right to interstate travel and infringes on the First Amendment right to free speech, saying that this law essentially chills speech around abortion.

The Supreme Court has held that moneys given to support speech also should be protected by free speech — or by the First Amendment, rather. So this is a new challenge against this teen travel ban.

And there's many state legislatures, Republican-led state legislatures, that are looking at doing this type of teen travel ban, because we have seen a — we have seen model legislation come from the Right to Life Committee, which is one of the largest anti-abortion groups in the country, that is essentially really looking at, how can they limit travel outside of these states for women under 18 and for adults as well?

Geoff Bennett:

Sarah Varney is senior correspondent for KFF Health News, and Erin Murphy is Des Moines bureau chief for The Gazette.

Our thanks to you both.

Sarah Varney:

Thanks, Geoff.

Erin Murphy:

Thank you.