Iowa lawmakers to weigh six-week abortion ban in special session

Iowa’s Republican-controlled legislature on Tuesday will consider a ban on abortions as soon as fetal cardiac activity can be detected, after around six weeks of pregnancy and before most women know they are pregnant.

Governor Kim Reynolds, a Republican, ordered the special legislative session after the Iowa Supreme Court on June 16 blocked a similar measure passed in 2018 from going into effect.The Midwestern state’s highest court deadlocked in a 3-3 decision, leaving abortion legal in Iowa for up to 20 weeks of pregnancy.However, the three judges who opposed reinstating the 2018 law said they were doing so to avoid legislating from the bench, leading Republican lawmakers to believe they have a good chance of beating future challenges by passing a new law now.Fourteen states have banned most abortions since the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2022 overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case and stripped away a nationwide right to abortion.Iowa’s 2018 ban on abortions after about six weeks was put on hold by the courts while Roe v. Wade and similar state constitutional protections were in effect, but both have now been reversed.

via Reuters