Iowa law banning most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy goes into effect Monday

FILE – Abortion rights protesters participate in a rally on June 24, 2022, in Des Moines, Iowa. Iowa’s strict abortion law goes into effect Monday, July 29, 2024, and bans most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy and before many women know they are pregnant. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa judge has ruled that the state’s strict abortion law will go into effect Monday, banning most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, before many women even know they are pregnant.

The law passed last year, but a judge had blocked its enforcement. The Iowa Supreme Court reiterated in June that there is no constitutional right to abortion in the state and ordered the block lifted. That translated into a district judge’s decision Monday to allow the law to take effect at 8 a.m. Central Time on July 29.

Attorneys representing abortion providers asked Judge Jeffrey Farrell for notice before the law took effect, saying a buffer period was needed to ensure continuity of service. Iowa requires pregnant women to wait 24 hours for an abortion after an initial consultation. Abortion was legal in the state up to 20 weeks of pregnancy.

The Supreme Court ruling marked a decisive victory for Iowa’s Republican leaders after years of legislative and legal battles.

Iowa will join more than a dozen states that have drastically curtailed abortion access in the two years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Currently, 14 states have near-total bans at all stages of pregnancy, and three states — Iowa will make it four — ban abortions 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 that “everything is at stake” when it comes to reproductive health in the November election and has traveled across the country to raise awareness about the issue, including in Des Moines about a year ago after the stricter law initially passed.

The Republican-controlled Iowa Legislature passed the law in a special session last July, and a legal challenge was immediately filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, Planned Parenthood North Central States and the Emma Goldman Clinic. The law was in effect for only a few days before a district judge temporarily blocked it.

“Today is a victory for life,” Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds said in a statement Tuesday.

There are limited circumstances under Iowa law that allow abortion after six weeks of pregnancy: rape, if reported to police or a health care provider 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. However, the rules do not specify how the board determines noncompliance or what disciplinary action is appropriate.

Representatives from Planned Parenthood and the Emma Goldman Clinic said they will continue to provide abortion services in Iowa in accordance with the law once it takes effect.

Until then, Planned Parenthood said Tuesday it will continue to operate “under current protocols” and take as many appointments as possible.

In June, Ruth Richardson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States, also said the organization has made “long-term regional investments” over the past year to prepare for this outcome, including expanding facilities in Mankato, Minnesota, and Omaha, Nebraska, both cities near Iowa.

Planned Parenthood Iowa has stopped providing abortion services in two Iowa cities in the past year, including Des Moines. Two of the five Planned Parenthood clinics in the state offer in-person abortion services, and three offer medication abortions.

People in and around Des Moines seeking an abortion travel 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 are more empathetic. There’s “the sensitivity of being told you’ve gone too far and it’s too late now: ‘You’ve got to, you know, leave and go somewhere else and you’ve got 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.

Sarah Traxler, medical director of the Planned Parenthood region, said a law that bans abortions after cardiac activity is detected is “troublesome.”

Because six weeks is approximate, Traxler said, “we don’t necessarily have plans to cut people off 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 after 21 weeks.

In other states where bans take effect at about six weeks of pregnancy, abortion rates have fallen by about half.

In its 4-3 opinion last month, the majority of the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that Iowa’s abortion laws should be evaluated based on whether the government has a legitimate interest in restricting the procedure, not whether the burden is unduly burdensome on people seeking abortions.

The decision was celebrated by Iowa’s conservative leaders, who have advocated against abortion access for decades. Chuck Hurley, vice president of the conservative Christian organization The Family Leader, said “bad judges have allowed abortion access in Iowa for more than 51 years.”

As Hurley celebrated the victory and the “great strides forward in protecting the most innocent among us,” he alluded to the work that still remained to be done.

“Fourteen states now protect babies from the moment of conception,” he said, “and Iowa should be the 15th.”