Two years after Dobbs ruling, Iowa abortion law remains in limbo

Not much has changed, legally, around abortion in Iowa since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal right in its landmark Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision. But proposals to further curtail abortion access and an impending state Supreme Court decision could change the landscape, activists said Monday.

Monday marked two years since the Dobbs decision upended federal abortion law, overturning a 50-year-old right to an abortion granted under Roe v. Wade and allowing states broad authority to restrict the procedure. While abortion rights supporters raised concerns, abortion opponents praised the ruling and the new restrictions on abortion that have come in its wake.

Since the Dobbs ruling, 21 states have banned the procedure before fetal viability, the standard set under Roe. Other states, including Iowa, are undergoing long court battles over proposed restrictions. Several Democratic-led states have set new protections for abortion access.

In Iowa, abortion remains legal up to roughly 20 weeks into a pregnancy. The Iowa Supreme Court is set to decide Friday on a challenge to a 2023 law that would ban abortion once cardiac activity is detected in a fetus, which can be as early as six weeks, but often is eight to 10 weeks.

The law includes exceptions for rape and incest, if reported before a deadline, and for medical abnormalities and emergencies.

The Republican-led Legislature passed the law in a 2023 special session after the Iowa Supreme Court declined to reinstate a nearly identical 2018 law in the wake of the Dobbs ruling.

“Anti-reproductive freedom champions in the Iowa House and Senate and the governor have made it a priority to control women in as many ways as possible,” said House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, D-Windsor Heights, during a news conference with Planned Parenthood North Central States on Monday.

Beyond the “fetal heartbeat” ban, Iowa Republicans have passed laws requiring a 24-hour waiting period and an ultrasound before a person can receive an abortion. Republicans have also passed laws funding anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers that give resources and advice to pregnant women.

Echoing arguments made by OB-GYNs during the special session and in court, Konfrst said that Iowa’s already strained maternal health care system will weaken if the abortion ban goes into effect.

Sarah Traxler, chief medical officer for Planned Parenthood of the North Central States, said much of her work of providing abortions and reproductive care has not changed in the last two years, but sometimes the patchwork of laws in the Midwest makes care difficult.

Traxler said she is seeing more patients travel longer distances to receive abortions as states like South Dakota, North Dakota and Nebraska have instituted new restrictions.

“I notice when we provide care and our care has to change at the drop of a hat, where all of a sudden we have to plan for something different,” she said. “Those days when I really start to understand … the politicians are in my exam room, and I’m told I can’t do certain things because they told me I can't do certain things.”

About 10 percent of Iowa abortion patients in 2023 traveled from out of state, a decrease from 2020, according to data from the Guttmacher Institute. Most of those visits, around 270 people, came from Nebraska, where abortion is illegal after 12 weeks.

Abortion opponents praise Dobbs decision

During a Right to Life rally at the Iowa Capitol on Saturday, Republicans praised the ruling that made Iowa’s law possible. Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds was not in attendance, but prepared remarks were read on her behalf.

“Six years later, with the so-called right to abortion overturned at both the state and federal levels, the stage is set for Iowa to take the lead once again in the battle for life, and that's exactly what we’ve set out to do,” Reynolds said in the submitted remarks.

Iowa U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, a Republican, said Monday on social media the Dobbs decision has saved “countless lives.”

“I will continue working to advance a culture of life in our country by expanding maternal care access, ensuring women have resources throughout pregnancy, and helping new families thrive,” Hinson said.

Iowa U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, a Republican, said on social media Monday that the GOP would continue to fight to prevent abortion and support women and families. The Dobbs decision, she said, “reflected the science, protected the unborn, and brought policymaking power back to the American people.”

Erin Murphy of the Gazette Des Moines Bureau contributed to this report.