A six-week abortion ban went into effect in Iowa on Monday, cutting off access to the procedure before many women know they are pregnant.
The Republican-dominated Iowa state legislature passed the ban last year, but a lengthy court battle initially stopped it from taking effect. Last month, the Iowa supreme court ruled that the ban could be enforced, leading a lower-court judge to order the ban to take effect at 8am local time.
“The upholding of this abortion ban in Iowa is an absolute devastation and violation of human rights, depriving Iowans of their bodily autonomy,” Leah Vanden Bosch, development and outreach director of the Iowa Abortion Access Fund, said in a statement. “We know a ban will not stop the need for abortions.”
Up until Sunday, abortion had been legal in Iowa up to roughly 22 weeks of pregnancy. Now, abortion clinics in the state have indicated that they will continue offering the procedure to the legal limit. The closest options for Iowans who want abortions after six weeks of pregnancy will probably be Minnesota and Illinois, Democrat-run states that border Iowa and that have become abortion havens since Roe v Wade was overturned in 2022.
The Iowa ban permits abortions past six weeks in cases of rape or incest, or in medical emergencies.
Fourteen other states, including much of the midwest, enacted near-total bans on abortion since the US supreme court overturned Roe. Three other states – Georgia, South Carolina and Florida – have banned abortion past about six weeks of pregnancy.
Roe’s demise led to surge in support for abortion rights, even in red states. 61% of Iowans, including 70% of women, say that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, a Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa poll found last year.
The end of Roe has made abortion rights one of the top issues in the 2024 election. Kamala Harris, the likely Democratic nominee for president and the face of the issue for Democrats, has said that she would sign a bill codifying Roe’s protections into law. On the other side of the aisle, Donald Trump, the Republican nominee who appointed three of the supreme court justices who overturned Roe, has tried to downplay the issue, which has become a liability for Republicans.
Kim Reynolds, Iowa’s Republican governor, celebrated the ban, calling it a “victory for life”. In a statement, she added: “There is nothing more sacred and no cause more worthy than protecting innocent unborn lives.”
