Gov. Kim Reynolds (R-IA) has called for a special session for Iowa lawmakers to enact stricter abortion laws in response to the state Supreme Court striking down the state’s six-week abortion ban last month.
The Republican-dominant Iowa legislature will meet on July 11, Reynolds announced in a press release on Wednesday. The session will meet with the “sole purpose of enacting legislation that addresses abortion and protects unborn lives.”
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“Iowans have elected representatives willing to stand up for the rights of the unborn and, in doing so, they have voted strongly in support of pro-life principles and against the arbitrary destruction of innocent, defenseless lives,” Reynolds said.
The session comes close to a month after the Iowa Supreme Court, in a 3-3 ruling, upheld a lower court’s decision that declared Reynolds’s six-week ban on abortion unconstitutional. The governor introduced the ban in 2018, and it was nullified by a district court in 2019.
In 2022, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled there is no fundamental right to abortion in the state’s constitution in a case involving waiting periods for abortion services. That decision, coupled with the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court last June, prompted Reynolds to send her six-week ban to the state’s high court for review.
The high court argued that it could not sanction Reynolds’s law given that it was written post-Dobbs, the case that nullified Roe v. Wade, but it would be open to hearing a new case on limiting abortion access. Currently, abortion is banned after 22 weeks in Iowa.
Now, lawmakers will gather in Des Moines to discuss a new abortion ban. With a GOP majority in both the House and Senate, it is likely a more restrictive ban could be on the table.
“After years of litigation, the Iowa Supreme Court was split 3-3 last month in its opinion regarding whether a lower court’s injunction of the Fetal Heartbeat Law should be dissolved. This lack of action disregards the will of Iowa voters and lawmakers who will not rest until the unborn are protected by law,” Reynolds said.
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Abortion is heavily restricted or banned across 23 states as of July 5. The six-week abortion ban is one of the strictest in the U.S. Georgia and North Dakota officially have six-week bans.
Florida signed a six-week ban into law in April, but it is currently on hold while the Florida Supreme Court reviews the state’s existing 15-week ban.
