Iowa's state House passed a bill Tuesday night that would ban most abortions in the state as early as six weeks into pregnancy, acting quickly in the special session ordered by GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds with the sole purpose of restricting the procedure in the state.
The bill now heads to the Senate, where it must earn approval before it can move to Reynold's desk for her signature.
Senate File 579 prohibits physicians from providing most abortions after early cardiac activity can be detected in a fetus or embryo, commonly as early as six weeks into pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant.
The bill includes exceptions for miscarriages, when the life of the pregnant woman is threatened and fetal abnormalities that would result in the infant's death. It also includes exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rapes reported within 45 days and incest reported within 140 days.
The state House voted 56-34 largely along party lines to advance the measure following a roughly 12-hour day that saw the measure move through rounds of consideration and debate. Debate in the state Senate continued late into Tuesday night.
The bill would immediately take effect with Reynolds' expected signature.
However, while the bill language makes clear it is "not to be construed to impose civil or criminal liability on a woman upon whom an abortion is performed in violation of the division," guidelines on how physicians would be punished for violating the law are left up to Iowa's board of medicine to decide -- leaving the potential for some vagueness in how the law ought to be enforced in the interim.
"There may or may not ever be rules promulgated," said Iowa Senate President Amy Sinclair, a Republican, amid several questions from Democrats on the floor. There were no legal penalties for physicians added in the bill, she said.
"As far as clarity, this is about as clear as mud," Democratic state Sen. Molly Donahue said on the floor.
Reynolds last week called for Iowa's legislature to convene for the special session "with the sole purpose of enacting legislation that addresses abortion and protects unborn lives," weeks after Iowa's Supreme Court declined to lift a block on the state's 2018 six-week abortion ban, deadlocking in a 3-3 vote whether to overturn a lower court decision that deemed the law unconstitutional.
The new bill and its 2018 predecessor are nearly identical, though the latter was not enacted immediately, granting the board of medicine time to flesh out how it planned to administer the law.
Democratic backlash to the bill and Reynolds' special session grew throughout the day, with state House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst saying in a statement, "Women are not free when they cannot make their own healthcare decisions. And after today, women won't be free."
Iowa's Senate Democratic Leader Pam Jochum said in a statement that her Republican colleagues were "ignoring Iowans in their rush to pass an extreme ban" and that "their actions today threaten the health and futures of all Iowa women."
"This extreme Republican power grab infringes on the personal freedom of every Iowa woman and girl. There are women alive today who will not be alive in six months because of this law," Jochum added.
Iowa's position as the first-in-the-nation caucus state for the coming GOP presidential primary has thrust its state politics onto the national stage, with Republican candidates jockeying for the favor of its voters.
Former Vice President Mike Pence posted his support of the bill on Twitter Tuesday night, writing, "Grateful to see Iowa Republicans and Governor @KimReynoldsIA Standing For Life! Pro-Life Americans are Cheering You On!"