'Fetal heartbeat' abortion limit, which would be nation's strictest, draws sparks at Iowa Statehouse

Republican legislators pressed ahead Thursday with an attempt to ban almost all abortions in Iowa, despite a warning that the measure would almost surely fail a court challenge.

The House Human Resources Committee voted 12-9 for a “fetal heartbeat” amendment, which would ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat could be detected. That’s at about six weeks of gestation, before many women realize they’re pregnant. Iowa law currently bars most abortions after 20 weeks, which already is among the strictest laws in the country.

The amendment is similar to a bill passed by the Senate last month. But the House version has several differences, including removal of criminal penalties for doctors who violated the new rules.

Proponents said they were standing up for the rights of unborn children.

Rep. Sandy Salmon, R-Janesville, said she doesn't understand people who claim to support safe abortions. “It’s an oxymoron. Who is an abortion safe for? It’s not safe for the baby, because they’re all killed. It’s not safe for the woman. Some are killed and the rest are wounded,” she said.

Salmon was unswayed by warnings that the proposal would be struck down by federal courts if it becomes law. “Unfortunately, a number of things that are legal are also destructive, and this is among the worst,” she told her colleagues.

Democrats on the committee decried the proposal as an attack on the rights of girls and women.

Rep. Timi Brown-Powers’ voice cracked with emotion as she told her colleagues she’d suffered several miscarriages and had one child. She said she would never want an abortion. “I don’t think there’s anybody in this room that wants to see an abortion. Nobody,” the Waterloo Democrat said.

Rep. Ako Abdul-Samad, D-Des Moines, ripped Republicans for claiming to protect the unborn while slashing spending on social services for Iowa children. "At what age do we stop saving babies?" he said, pounding the conference table.

The bill would only allow abortions after a fetal heartbeat was detected if the mother’s life was in danger. The abortion ban would make no exceptions for a mother with psychological or emotional issues, or for rape victims or minor girls.

Democratic Rep. Mary Mascher of Iowa City asked Republican Rep. Shannon Lundgren of Peosta whether a 7-year-old girl who became pregnant by rape would be required to carry a pregnancy to term. Lundgren, who is the bill’s floor manager, acknowledged that the girl would not be eligible for an abortion. Mascher responded with shock. “I’m just dumbfounded,” she said. “…I can’t imagine Iowans would think that’s OK.”

Later in the hearing, Lundgren said she understands that such a situation would be horrible. But, she said, “there is another life at stake.”

Critics noted federal courts have struck down similar laws in Arkansas and North Dakota, ruling that they violated women’s Constitutional right to abortion before a fetus becomes viable outside the womb. Supporters of the Iowa bill hope it will reach the U.S. Supreme Court and lead the justices to overturn the landmark Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing abortion.

Thursday’s measure was offered as an amendment to a Senate bill that would bar transfers of fetal tissue. It now goes to the full House. If it passes there, it would go back to the Senate.

Thursday’s vote was along party lines, except for a "no" vote from Republican Michael Bergan of Dorchester, who did not speak in the meeting. Republican David Heaton of Mount Pleasant hesitated several seconds when it came time for his vote. Finally, he said, “Yes, for now.”

The emotional debate drew more than 100 onlookers to the Capitol’s old Supreme Court chambers. Three state troopers stood guard to keep order among the abortion-rights advocates and abortion opponents.

A spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, which is Iowa’s largest abortion provider, said earlier Thursday that the bill would effectively outlaw abortion in Iowa. She said more than 99 percent of the abortions her agency performed last fiscal year were done after six weeks of gestation.

The Iowa Department of Public Health tracks every abortion performed in the state, but it doesn’t report how many of them are done before or after six weeks of gestation. However, state reports show that a large majority of abortions are performed within the first 13 weeks of pregnancy, which is the first trimester. In 2016, the latest year of data available, 94 percent of Iowa’s 3,722 abortions were performed before that time..

The arguments come among a dramatic decline in abortions in Iowa and across the nation. The number of abortions performed in Iowa dropped 44 percent since 2007, when there were 6,649, to 2016, when there were 3,722, according to reports from the state Department of Public Health.

Iowa’s birth rate has not climbed to offset the drop in the abortion rate.

Iowa’s abortion decline came even as access to abortion services broadened in rural Iowa. For the past several years, Planned Parenthood of Central Iowa has used a controversial video-conferencing system that lets doctors in Des Moines or Iowa City interact with patients in rural clinics and dispense abortion-inducing pills to them.

Iowa regulators appointed by former Gov. Terry Branstad, who is an ardent abortion foe, tried to bar use of the system. But the Iowa Supreme Court unanimously overruled the regulators and allowed Planned Parenthood to continue using it.