A group of Iowa legislators introduced a bill that would make providing an abortion a crime carrying a murder charge in the state.
HF 138 was introduced Wednesday, February 6, 2013 by a group of nine Republican Iowa representatives including lead sponsor, Representative Tom Shaw of Laurens. The bill’s co-sponsors are representatives Greg Heartsill, Dwayne Alons, Jason Schultz, Robert Bacon, Larry Sheets, Kevin Koester, Joel Fry and Sandy Salmon.
The bill seeks to define a “person” in Iowa statutes as “an individual human being, without regard to age of development, from the moment of conception, when a zygote is formed, until natural death.”
The bill goes on to define abortion as murder, saying, “Murder includes killing another person through any means that terminates the life of the other person including but not limited to the use of abortion-inducing drugs.”
The bill also amends Iowa Code to strike provisions that relate to allowing abortions under certain circumstances.
Radio Iowa reports if the bill clears the Republican-led Iowa House, it would face almost certain defeat in the Democrat-controlled Iowa Senate.
