Just after eleven p.m. Tuesday evening, Iowa GQPers passed a bill “to ban most abortions after six weeks — a restrictive measure that would quickly remake the reproductive rights legal landscape in a key early voting state.” The bill passed along party lines and Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds said she will sign it into law on Friday.
“Justice for the unborn should not be delayed,” Reynolds said.
If it is not blocked by a court, the law would go into effect immediately after Reynolds signs it — which could send abortion clinics in the state, as well as women with appointments scheduled at them in coming days and weeks, scrambling. As it currently stands, abortion remains legal in Iowa until the 20th week of pregnancy.
The bill does provide a few exceptions:
- The life of the woman.
- Miscarriages.
- Fetal abnormalities deemed by a physician “incompatible with life.”
- Pregnancies resulting from rape and from incest.
- For those exceptions to apply, the rape must have been reported to law enforcement or a “public or private health agency” — which includes a family doctor — within 45 days, and the incest must have been reported to any of those officials or entities within 140 days.
