Iowa’s Republican-controlled legislature advanced a bill that would ban most abortions in the state as early as six weeks into pregnancy.
The state’s Senate passed a bill late Tuesday in a 32 to 17 vote and is now headed to Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds’ desk for signing, after she ordered a special legislative session with the sole purpose of restricting the procedure in the state.
The bill prohibits physicians from providing most abortions after early cardiac activity can be detected in a fetus or embryo, commonly as early as six weeks into pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant.
The bill includes exceptions for miscarriages, when the life of the pregnant woman is threatened and fetal abnormalities that would result in the infant’s death. It also includes exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rapes reported within 45 days and incest reported within 140 days.
The Senate vote came despite Democratic backlash after the state House voted 56-34 largely along party lines to advance the measure following a roughly 12-hour day that saw the measure move through rounds of consideration and debate.
“The voices of the unborn and their elected representatives will not be silenced any longer! Congrats to the Iowa House and Senate!” Reynolds tweeted early Wednesday upon the bill’s passage.
She is expected to sign the legislation into law on Friday, according to a statement from her office. The law would go into effect immediately following Reynolds’s signature.
However, while the bill language makes clear it is “not to be construed to impose civil or criminal liability on a woman upon whom an abortion is performed in violation of the division,” guidelines on how physicians would be punished for violating the law are left up to Iowa’s board of medicine to decide – leaving the potential for some…
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