Iowa’s Republican-controlled legislature voted to pass a bill banning most abortions at six weeks late Tuesday night, sending the bill to Gov. Kim Reynolds’s (R-IA) desk, where she is expected to sign it into law.
The marathon one-day special legislative session wrapped up just after 11 p.m. local time after Reynolds called it with the intent of enacting “pro-life” legislation, per NBC News.
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The bill passed late Monday would ban abortions once cardiac activity can be detected, which is usually at six weeks. The law includes exceptions for when the life of the woman is at risk, for miscarriages, and for fetal abnormalities deemed by a physician “incompatible with life.”
The bill also reportedly includes exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape and incest when the rape is reported within 45 days and when the incest is reported within 140 days.
Abortion is currently legal in Iowa up to 20 weeks of pregnancy. Women and medical professionals have said there are many women who do not know they are pregnant at six weeks.
Reynolds said she plans to sign the bill into law on Friday.
“Today, the Iowa legislature once again voted to protect life and end abortion at a heartbeat,” the Republican governor said Tuesday, per WOI-DT.
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Protesters in support of and against the bill butted heads in the Iowa State Capitol rotunda on Tuesday. Iowa maintains a strong level of influence as a key early-voting state, and abortion is likely to play a major role in the presidential primaries and caucuses.
A number of states, many in the South, have drastically rolled back abortion protections since Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022.
