The Quickie: Iowa Legislature to Vote on Near Total Abortion Ban
For Immediate Release: July 11, 2023
Welcome to “The Quickie” — Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s daily tipsheet on the top health care & reproductive rights stories of the day. You can read “The Quickie'' online here.
In today’s Quickie: IA legislature to vote on near total abortion ban and anti-abortion politicians in Congress mess with yet another major bill.
TODAY: IOWA LEGISLATURE TO VOTE ON NEAR TOTAL ABORTION BAN: Today, Iowa’s legislature reconvenes for a special session to pass a ban on abortion after approximately six weeks of pregnancy. The bill has limited exceptions for the life and health of the pregnant person and purports to provide exceptions for certain survivors of rape and incest; those experiencing miscarriage; and those with particular fetal diagnoses. The reality is that abortion will be largely unavailable for most Iowans even with these exceptions, which are laden with barriers to access.
Iowa’s special session comes just weeks after the state Supreme Court allowed a permanent injunction to remain in place on a nearly identical six-week ban passed in 2018. Both House and Senate are expected to begin floor debate at 4 PM CT today, with votes in both chambers required to be taken by 11 PM CT. Follow the action in both chambers here.
SSB 1223 has been referred to as the “Heartbeat Bill,” but make no mistake: using the term “heartbeat” is factually and medically inaccurate and designed to stigmatize abortion. Every person’s situation is unique, and the truth is that there is no scientific or medical consensus on when life begins.
Read more about why the language of abortion bans matters here.
Read more about the special session at Des Moines Register and ABC.
MAKING EVERYTHING ABOUT ABORTION, YET AGAIN: It’s NDAA season, and yet again, anti-abortion politicians just can’t let people make their own decisions about their own bodies, lives, and futures. This year, those politicians want to make it that much harder for members of the military and their families living in states with abortion restrictions to get the health care they need by refusing to pay for or reimburse abortion-related expenses. They’ve also introduced amendments that would prohibit the military from considering a state’s abortion policy when determining where federal military installations are located.
All this after Americans have made it repeatedly clear: they do not want abortion bans. Will these politicians learn?
Abortion isn’t the only thing at stake; other amendments offered would prohibit gender-affirming care at Department of Defense facilities and prohibit coverage of gender-affirming care under TRICARE. Attacks on necessary medical care for transgender service members and their families are not just issues of equity and morality, they are a safety issue. Bans on gender affirming care threaten the mental, physical, and emotional health of transgender individuals.
Read more about the ongoing fight from the Washington Post.