After Roe Fell: U.S. Abortion Laws by State

Hostile

Iowa

Iowa will likely try to prohibit abortion. As of July 2024, the state is enforcing a 6-week ban.

State Legal Details

Bans in Effect

  • Gestational Ban, 22-week LMP
  • Gestational Ban, 6-week LMP

Bans Enjoined

  • Method Ban
  • Telemedicine Ban

Restrictions in Effect

  • Biased Counseling Requirement
  • Mandatory Ultrasound Requirement
  • Parental Involvement, Parental Notification Requirement
  • TRAP requirements: Providers, Reporting Requirement
  • Waiting Period Requirement

Restrictions

In July 2024, following a decision from the Iowa Supreme Court, the District Court removed the injunction blocking enforcement of the 6-week ban enacted in 2023.1 Iowa law also prohibits abortion at twenty weeks post-fertilization and in the third trimester.2 It prohibits D&X procedures,3 but this ban is permanently enjoined.4 Pregnant people who seek abortion care must undergo biased counseling and be offered an ultrasound; the seventy-two-hour waiting period has been stricken from the statute,5 In 2020 Iowa enacted a new twenty-four waiting period, which was permanently enjoined until a decision of the Iowa Supreme Court in June 2022.6 Iowa limits public funding for abortion.7 Iowa law generally requires that a parent or legal guardian is notified about a minor’s abortion;8 alternatively, a judge can approve a minor’s petition without parental notification.9

In 2020, Iowa exploited the COVID-19 pandemic in an attempt to ban abortion care, issuing an executive order 10 that purported to suspend procedures deemed “non-essential” by the state. This order contradicted major medical groups in the United States and around the world, which agree that abortion is essential and time sensitive health care.11 The Iowa District Court approved the settlement agreement allowing essential abortion care to continue and the suspension of “non-essential” medical procedures was removed from subsequent executive orders.12

Iowa’s targeted regulation of abortion providers (TRAP) laws include reporting requirements.13 Iowa law restricts the provision of abortion care to licensed physicians14 and restricts providers from using telemedicine for the provision of abortion care, but this rule is permanently enjoined.15 Providers who violate Iowa’s abortion restrictions may face civil and criminal penalties. 16

State Protections

Between 2018 and 2022, Iowa law included the highest level of constitutional protection for abortion. In 2018, the Iowa Supreme Court held that the due process and equal protection clauses of the Iowa Constitution protect the fundamental right to abortion, and that restrictions on that right are subject to strict scrutiny.17 However, in 2022, the Court overruled itself, stating “We hold today is that the Iowa Constitution is not the source of a fundamental right to an abortion necessitating a strict scrutiny standard of review for regulations affecting that right. For now, this means that the Casey undue burden test we applied in PPH I remains the governing standard. On remand, the parties should marshal and present evidence under that test, although the legal standard may also be litigated further.”18

Post-Roe Prohibitions

Iowa repealed its pre-Roe ban in 1976.19

Conclusion

Now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe, Iowa will likely try to prohibit abortion. As of July 2024, the state is enforcing a 6-week ban.

  1. Iowa Code u00a7 146E.2; Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, Inc v. Reynolds, (Iowa June 28, 2024). The previous 6-week ban is still enjoined, see Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, Inc v. Reynolds, No. 22-2036, (Iowa June 16, 2023). This injunction was lifted by the District Court on July 22, 2024, Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, Inc v. Reynolds, 05771 EQCE089066 (D. Polk Jul. 22, 2024). ↩︎
  2. Iowa Code u00a7u00a7 146B.2, 707.7. ↩︎
  3. IOWA CODE u00a7 707.8A. ↩︎
  4. Planned Parenthood Inc. v. Miller, 195 F.3d 386, 388 (8th Cir. 1999). ↩︎
  5. IOWA CODE u00a7 146A.1. However, the Supreme Court of Iowa held that the 72-hour waiting period requirement was unconstitutional and struck it from the statute. Planned Parenthood of the Heartland v. Reynolds ex re. State, 915 N.W.2d 206, 246 (Iowa 2018). ↩︎
  6. IOWA CODE u00a7 146A.1(1). Planned Parenthood of the Heartland v. Reynolds, No. EQCV081855 (Iowa Dist. June 21, 2021); Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, Inc. v. Reynolds, 975 N.W.2d 710 (Iowa June 17, u00a02022) ↩︎
  7. IOWA ADMIN. CODE r. 441-78.1(249A). ↩︎
  8. IOWA CODE u00a7 135L.3 (1). ↩︎
  9. Id. u00a7 135L.3(3). ↩︎
  10. Governor Kimberly K. Reynolds, Public Health Proclamation (March 26, 2020) ↩︎
  11. See Joint Statement on Abortion Access During the COVID-19 Outbreak, Am. Coll. Obstetrics & Gynecology (Mar. 18, 2020); Disaster Risk Management for Health, Sexual and Reproductive Health, World Health Org. (May 2011); Safe Abortion Care in the Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP) for Sexual and Reproductive Health in Humanitarian Settings, Inter-Agency Working Grp. (Dec. 19, 2019) ↩︎
  12. Planned Parenthood of the Heartland v. Reynolds, No. CVCV081717 (Iowa Dist. April 1, 2020), Gov. Kimberly K. Reynolds, Public Health Proclamation (May 6, 2020) ↩︎
  13. IOWA CODE u00a7 146B.2(3); IOWA ADMIN. CODE r. 641-100.5(144). ↩︎
  14. IOWA CODE u00a7 707.7. ↩︎
  15. IOWA ADMIN. CODE r. 653-13.10(3), invalidated by Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, Inc. v. Iowa Bd. of Med., 865 N.W.2d 252, 269 (Iowa 2015). ↩︎
  16. See, e.g., Iowa Code u00a7u00a7 147.55, 146B.3, 148.6 135L.3(n). Iowa Admin. Code r. 653u201313.17(5). ↩︎
  17. Planned Parenthood, 915 N.W.2d at 236-37, 241. ↩︎
  18. Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, Inc. v. Reynolds, 975 N.W.2d 710 (Iowa June 17, 2022), available at https://www.iowacourts.gov/iowa-courts/supreme-court/supreme-court-opinions/case/221-0856. ↩︎
  19. 1976 Iowa Acts 774. Sec. 526 repealed Chapter 701, including IOWA CODE u00a7 701.1 (1950): u2018If any person, with intent to produce a miscarriage of any woman, willfully administer to her any drug or substance whatever, or, with such intent, use any instrument or other means whatever, unless such miscarriage shall be necessary to save her life, he shall be imprisoned.” Text available in State v. Snyder, 59 N.W.2d 223, 225 (Iowa 1953). ↩︎