Last week, Attorney General Brenna Bird finally filed the Reynolds administration’s appeal to the Iowa Supreme Court, seeking to have the temporary injunction stopping enforcement of a new law banning almost all abortion after six weeks lifted. The Nov. 8 court filing comes four months after Gov. Kim Reynolds issued a statement saying she would appeal the July 17 district court ruling creating the injunction.
Because of Polk County District Court Judge Joseph Seidlin’s July ruling, abortion remains legal in Iowa up to 20 weeks into a pregnancy.
The new abortion ban is almost identical to a 2018 law the Iowa Supreme Court ruled violated rights guaranteed by the Iowa Constitution. It makes abortion illegal once an ultrasound probe can detect any cardiac activity in an embryo, which typically occurs around six weeks of pregnancy, before most people even know they are pregnant. There are narrow and burdensome exemptions for victims of rape and incest, as well as exemptions for cases where the embryo or fetus has a condition “incompatible with life,” the life of the patient is in immediate danger, or continuing the pregnancy would pose a “serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function” for the patient.
Reynolds and other abortion opponents like to call the law created by HF 732 the Fetal Heartbeat Law, but an ultrasound probe detects cardiac activity that triggers the ban before a heart is formed and prior to an embryo becoming a fetus. Although “fetal heartbeat” is medically inaccurate, the term has been an effective political marketing tool and both HF 732 and the brief filed with the Iowa Supreme Court use it.
“The people of Iowa and their elected representatives have spoken clearly and by a wider margin than before: it’s time for the Fetal Heartbeat Law to be upheld once and for all,” Reynolds said in a written statement released by her office after the appeal was filed. “The injunction placed on Iowa’s Fetal Heartbeat Law has already led to the innocent deaths of children.”
While it is true that HF 732 passed the Iowa Legislature by a wide margin – although with only support from Republicans, who have large majorities in both the House and Senate – there is no evidence showing a majority of Iowans support a six-week ban. All polling done on the issue of abortion in the state has found a majority of Iowans support the right to an abortion.
Judge Seidlin exempted one provision of HF 732 from his temporary injunction. His ruling allowed the Iowa Board of Medicine to go forward the rule-making process to determine how the abortion ban should be administered. At its meeting in Des Moines on Friday, the board will consider the administrative rules package for the ban prepared by the Iowa Attorney General’s office and vote on it.
Like the governor and the attorney general, the administrative rules uses the medically inaccurate term “fetal heartbeat.” It remains to be seen if the medical professionals on the board will require that any rule they adopt uses accurate language.
The proposed rules dictate the documentation physicians must include in a patient’s record if they decide to provide abortion services. It also includes questions a doctor must ask a patient if that patient is seeking an abortion under the narrow exemptions in HF 732 for victims of rape or incest. The doctor is required to have the patient provide the date “the act was reported to a law enforcement agency, public health agency, private health agency, or family physician.” The doctor is required to make “a good-faith assessment” as to whether a patient is telling the truth, and then “shall use this information to determine whether the fetal heartbeat exception” applies.
Under HF 732, a rape victim must report the rape within 45 days to receive an abortion after six weeks, and victims of incest must do so within 140 days. There are no medical reasons for setting those time periods; they are the result of political decisions by Iowa Republican leaders.
According to the proposal before the board, a failure to fully comply with the rules “may constitute grounds for disciplinary action.”
The Board of Medicine’s Friday meeting in Des Moines begins at 10 a.m. in Suite 100 of 6200 Park Ave, the former corporate headquarters of Wells Fargo, which the state purchased earlier this year. It is open to the public, and there is a Zoom option for those who can’t attend in person. There will be opportunities for public comment on the proposed abortion rules and other items on the board’s agenda. Comments will be limited to five minutes.
