DES MOINES, Iowa — Editor's Note: News 8's sister station in Des Moines, WOI-DT Local 5, contributed to this article.
Iowa's Republican-controlled Legislature will aim to enact a ban on abortion after roughly six weeks of pregnancy during a rare special session that starts July 11.
The proposed measure is similar to a 2018 law that a deadlocked state Supreme Court declined to reinstate last month, prompting Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds to call for the extraordinary session. Abortion is currently legal in Iowa up to 20 weeks of pregnancy.
Democratic State Representative Ken Croken (D - Davenport) said the proposed changes would put further strain on healthcare.
"I know this from many years working in healthcare: the ability to recruit obstetricians and gynecologists to come... and stay in this state have been dramatically deteriorated by this action," Croken said. "The sad irony is that with the lack of healthcare resources that will result from this, we will likely endanger more pregnancies than we protect by this action."
Republican State Representative Luana Stoltenberg (R - Davenport) said the new laws would further protect women.
"When I was a teenager, I had abortions," Stoltenberg said. "I was told that it was just a blob of tissue, that it was a safe procedure, and it was not. Then when I did get married and wanted children, I wasn't able to conceive . I've never been able to have my own children ever — and it was because of the damage the abortions did to my tubes and uterus."
The drafted bill, like the 2018 law, would prohibit abortion once cardiac activity can be detected, which is usually around six weeks of pregnancy and before many women know they are pregnant.
A district court deemed that law unconstitutional in 2019 given rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court and the state's highest court that affirmed a woman’s fundamental constitutional right to abortion. Both bodies overturned those rulings last year, so Reynolds sought to reinstate the 2018 law.
The current draft of the bill, which may be amended before a vote, includes exceptions for medical emergencies, rape, incest and fetal abnormality.
Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the state, has said it plans to protest outside the Iowa Capitol on Tuesday. It has previously filed lawsuits to challenge the state’s abortion restrictions.
Any restrictions to come out of Iowa's special session are likely to be challenged in court.
It's unclear how long the House and Senate will take to debate over the proposed changes, but lawmakers on both sides said they expect voting to conclude by the end of the day on Tuesday.