Southeast Iowa reacts to abortion ban

DES MOINES — In a nearly all-day special session on Tuesday, both bodies of the Iowa Legislature passed a bill that bans abortions after a “fetal heartbeat,” a consistent impulse from tissue that later develops into a heart, is detected, usually around six weeks into a pregnancy.

The law — House File 732 — is expected to receive the governor’s signature on Friday, adding Iowa to a list of 10 other states with similar restrictions. It contains exceptions for cases of rape and incest, provided they’re documented soon enough after an incident, medical emergencies, and for abnormalities that make a fetus “incompatible with life.”

All but four Republicans voted in favor of the bill across the assembly, with three voting against it and one absent. All Democrats present voted no.

“I’ve always been a pro-life advocate … I’m happy to vote for it,” said Republican State Sen. Dawn Driscoll, who represents the counties of Washington, Iowa and part of Johnson. “(I’m) Always willing to fight for the babies, fight for the life of the unborn.”

Iowa Rep. Jeff Shipley of House District 87, which includes Jefferson, Van Buren and Henry counties, voiced his support for the legislation as well.

“As a man, it’s appropriate for me to follow the leadership of empowered women like Gov. Reynolds, Reps. Shannon Lundgren and Luana Stoltenberg, and so many others, to build consensus as a state on abortion restrictions, and the various circumstances which would outweigh the tragedy and legally permit an abortion,” said Shipley in a Facebook post Wednesday.

Law bans abortions before many women know they’re pregnant

House File 732 defines a fetal heartbeat as “the steady and repetitive rhythmic contraction of the fetal heart within the gestational sac.”

The American Pregnancy Association says an early fetal heartbeat can begin between 5.5 and 6.5 weeks, along with the development of a fetal pole, which it called “The first visible sign of a developing embryo.”

A 2016 study from the Maternal and Child Health Journal found that the average gestational age at which women became aware of their pregnancy was 5.5 weeks, but later for those younger than 25 and earlier for those above 34.

Critics say the bill gives women too little — sometimes zero — time to make an informed choice about their pregnancy.

“As a female who’s been pregnant four times, never once did I have knowledge of that pregnancy at six weeks,” said Washington County Democrats Chair Sandra Johnson. “I don’t think the Iowa Legislature should be the one standing between you and your doctor, and your family planning, and your personal health.”

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Advocates for the legislation, however, said cardiac activity constituted a measurable sign of life, making it the ideal benchmark.

Traveling from Mt. Pleasant, Cradle of Hope Pregnancy Outreach Center Director Peggy Knudsen testified in favor of the bill to legislators on Tuesday before votes were cast. She said she was strongly in favor of the bill.

“We give women who come in that are in an unplanned pregnancy an ultrasound so they could see their baby or the beating heart,” she said. “We can detect it as early as six weeks, and it changes everything … If it has a heartbeat, it is a baby, no matter how small, and the only difference between you and I and that beating heart of that baby is time.”

In a news release Tuesday, Gov. Kim Reynolds said her party had championed family values by passing the law.

“As a pro-life Gov., I am also committed to continuing policies to support women in planning for motherhood, promote the importance of fatherhood, and encourage strong families,” she said. “Our state and country will be stronger because of it.”

Chloe Hennesy, former chair of the Jefferson County Democrats and its current secretary, said she didn’t see those issues prioritized by the administration.

“Banning abortion after six weeks is antithetical to supporting family values,” Hennesy said. “If life begins at conception, or it begins with a heartbeat, there should also be support for that life outside the womb. It’s difficult when we have conservative folks who say they are family-minded, who also don’t want to fund or care for the structures that support families like public education or affordable health care.”

Hennesy said she felt Republicans’ desire to ban abortion also ran afoul of their commitment to freedom in other areas.

“My uterus is a part of my body, and people are trying to tell me what I can and can’t do with it,” she said. “With COVID vaccinations, [the Republicans] say it’s a matter of medical freedom. Does this not fall under the purview of medical freedom?”

Supporters of the bill said they were sought to protect rights as well, saying they wanted to protect “unborn lives.”

“I feel strongly that the 2018 heartbeat bill is a good piece of legislation that would save many innocent unborn lives,” read a July 8 newsletter from State House. District 95 Rep. Taylor Collins, a Republican whose district includes Louisa, Henry, Des Moines and Muscatine counties. “When the first heartbeat of that unborn baby can be detected, I believe that life should be protected, and will vote to do so.”

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That view, also, is hotly contested. Skeptics of HF 732 said the beginning of life was a religious question, which the government should leave up to individuals.

Martha Sherman, a Bishop for the Midwest region of the Roman Catholic Womenpriests, said didn’t believe “that electrical activity is the same as heart activity,” in an interview Wednesday.

“I'm a person of great faith, but also a person of science, and have given this whole issue a lot of thought across the years,” she said. “Obviously, the position of the Roman Catholic Church is that abortion is wrong … That's not where I am, because the Roman Catholic Church also teaches that your conscience comes first.”

New law contests state court ruling

The law mirrors one passed in 2018 by the legislature, but which was blocked by the state supreme court. An attempt to reverse that decision this year was met with a split 3-3 decision in June, an outcome that upheld a ban on enforcing the law.

Writing for half the justices in a non-precedent-setting opinion, Justice Thomas Waterman said the District Court was right to find no grounds for a new ruling.

“To put it politely, the (2018) legislature was enacting a hypothetical law,” Waterman wrote. “Today, such a statute might take effect given the change in the constitutional law landscape. But uncertainty exists about whether a fetal heartbeat bill would be passed today. To begin, a different general assembly is in place than was in place in 2018, with significant turnover of membership in the intervening three election cycles.”

State Rep. Heather Hora, a Republican from Washington County, said the newly passed house file rebuked Waterman’s argument.

“For them to step in and say that, ‘Maybe they didn’t mean to do it,’ or, ‘They didn’t know what they were doing,’ I just think the judicial branch was overstepping,” she said. “I think repassing the same language sends a message that it wasn’t by mistake, it was by design.”

June was not the end of fetal heartbeat debates in Iowa’s courtrooms, however.

Planned Parenthood, the Emma Goldman Clinic and the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa filed a lawsuit against the newly enacted bill shortly after 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, days before its signature into law, according to court documents.

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The nonprofits argue that since the law would take effect immediately, it violated the rights of providers as well as women who had planned on abortion access until their 20th week of pregnancy under previous state law.

“Because the Act takes effect so early in pregnancy, it will ban the vast majority of abortions in Iowa,” the court filing reads. “Even those who do know may not have had time to make a decision about whether to have an abortion, research their options, and schedule appointments at a health center, not to mention overcoming the logistical and financial obstacles required to travel to a health center.”

The groups requested a temporary injunction against the soon-to-be signed law, a move that would delay its implementation until later court rulings can determine its constitutionality. If allowed by the court, that would make the law unenforceable even after its anticipated signature.

Attorneys said such an injunction would prevent irreparable harm to patients, of whom they estimated 92% would lose access to already-scheduled abortions under the new law.

“If the Act takes effect, Petitioners will be forced to turn away the vast majority of patients seeking abortions,” one court document said. “Petitioners have 200 patients scheduled for abortion services for the weeks of July 10 and 17, and few, if any, will fall within the Act’s narrow exceptions … For these patients, who will suffer a range of physical, mental, and economic consequences, there is no effective monetary remedy after judgment for the impact of forced pregnancy and loss of bodily autonomy.”

That hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on Friday, according to court filings. That falls shortly before the signing ceremony, which one Republican legislator said was scheduled for 2 p.m. the same day.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com