University of Iowa student Aubrey Stark remembers coming home from elementary school to see her usually lively pregnant mother, Mandy Stark, ill and bedridden. “She was in so much pain,” Stark said. “[Her condition] was not safe for her at all.” Mandy Stark was suffering from a molar pregnancy, defined by the National Cancer Institute […]
Emma Goldman Clinic
Legal challenge to Iowa’s near-total abortion ban withdrawn; pro-choice PAC to spend $250,000 in the state ahead of Election Day
Last week, the legal challenge to Iowa’s new near-total abortion ban ended. On Thursday, the ACLU of Iowa filed a petition in Polk County District Court asking Judge Jeffrey Farrell to dismiss the lawsuit it filed in July 2023 on behalf of the Emma Goldman Clinic, Planned Parenthood of the Heartland (PPH) and its medical […]
Iowa Supreme Court rejects request for rehearing of its abortion decision, clearing the way for the state’s near-total ban to go into effect (Updated)
Update (Tuesday, July 23, 2024): Iowa’s new near-total abortion ban will go into effect on Monday, following the Iowa Supreme Court’s rejection of a rehearing request on its latest decision on reproductive rights. In an order issued Tuesday morning, Polk County District Court Judge Jerry Farrell wrote “the temporary injunction shall be deemed dissolved effective […]
Iowa’s near-total abortion ban remains blocked by injunction
The state’s near-total abortion ban will not go into effect until the Iowa Supreme Court acts on a petition for a rehearing on its decision to overturn a temporary injunction against the ban, a Polk County District Court judge informed the parties in the case on Friday afternoon. A divided Iowa Supreme Court ruled 4-3 […]
Iowa’s extreme abortion ban expected to go into effect Friday
Iowa’s near-total abortion ban is expected to go into effect on Friday, following the 4-3 Iowa Supreme Court decision on June 28 that overturned the temporary injunction halting the ban while the lawsuit filed by the Emma Goldman Clinic and Planned Parenthood North Central States is before the courts. The four-justice majority sent the case back […]
Iowa Supreme Court upholds near-total abortion ban, creating ‘a constitutional rule that gives no weight to a woman’s autonomy over her body’
Six years ago, the Iowa Supreme Court found the state constitution guaranteed the right to an abortion. “Autonomy and dominion over one’s body go to the very heart of what it means to be free,” then-Chief Justice Mark Cady wrote in the 2018 decision striking down a medically unnecessary 72-hour waiting period for an abortion […]
The anti-abortion bill set to pass in Iowa this week would go into effect immediately
This story originally appeared in LV Daily, Little Village’s Monday-Friday email newsletter. Sign up to have it delivered for free to your inbox. The abortion bill for which a special session of the Iowa Legislature was called by Gov. Kim Reynolds was published on Friday. This new bill is almost identical to the 2018 bill […]
Iowans’ abortion rights preserved as justices fail to reach decision on Reynolds’ petition
Abortion remains legal in Iowa up to the 20th week of pregnancy as Gov. Kim Reynolds’ latest effort to outlaw almost all abortions in Iowa failed on Friday. The Iowa Supreme Court split 3-3 on her unprecedented petition to have the court dissolve the 2019 permanent injunction on the six-week abortion ban the governor signed […]
Revival’s vibrators are a bestseller — and spreading good vibes about sexual wellness
I can’t be the only Iowan who has found herself opening an incognito tab in a dispiriting search for a decent vibrator. Driving across the state on I-80, you’re bound to see a few billboards for adult stores selling plasticky sex toys out of warehouses with truck-friendly parking lots. Chains like Romantix, Spencer’s and Lion’s […]
Student group demands University of Iowa ensure access to abortion, contraception, gender-affirming care and parental leave
On Thursday, graduate students and undergrads at the University of Iowa joined more than 60 universities and high schools across 29 states for The Day of Student Action for Reproductive Justice, a student-led protest urging governments and educational institutions to ensure access to abortion, contraception, sex education and gender-affirming healthcare. The Campaign to Organize Graduate […]
Emma Goldman Clinic’s founding mothers reflect on ‘the beauty of choice,’ half a century of Roe and the future of abortion care
Deb Nye was 23 when she heard the news: The Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade had just affirmed a person’s right to choose to have an abortion. It was late January 1973, and light snow covered the ground. She ran two blocks to the University of Iowa College of Law building, crossing over […]
Photo Gallery: Hundreds march in Iowa City ‘Bans Off Our Bodies’ protest
In the second week of protests in Iowa City following the leaked draft opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court — which is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade and undermine decades of precedent for reproductive rights and right to privacy — hundreds of Iowans rallied on the University of Iowa Pentacrest on Saturday, as part […]

