Red State Governor Signs Fetal Heartbeat Bill Into Law

Red State Governor Signs Fetal Heartbeat Bill Into Law

Kate Anderson on July 14, 2023

Republican Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a fetal heartbeat bill into law Friday after calling a last-minute special session to get the legislation passed.

The law was passed Tuesday during a special legislative session after the Iowa Supreme Court struck down a bill passed in 2018 that would have made abortion illegal in the state after six weeks, with limited exceptions. Reynolds called the legislators back to the capitol to get a new bill passed and signed it into law during The Family Leader’s annual Christian conference in Des Moines, Iowa, according to a live stream of the event.

The Iowa governor applauded the efforts of legislators to get the bill passed, but warned that the fight had only begun.

“Our work is not done,” Reynolds said. “As we gather here today at this very moment, the abortion industry is in the court trying to prevent this law from taking effect.”

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Reynolds over the law, arguing that it was unconstitutional.

“These out-of-touch politicians have inserted themselves into the exam rooms of Iowans, who no longer have control over their bodies and futures because of an unpopular, narrow political agenda,” Ruth Richardson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States, said in a press release.

The lawsuit is similar to the one levied against the state after the Iowa legislature passed a law that banned abortions after six-weeks, excepts for in cases of rape, incest and to save the life of the mother in 2018. The law was struck down by the state’s Supreme Court, who said it would be “troubling” for it to be the “first state supreme court in the nation to hold that trash set out in a garbage can for collection is entitled to more constitutional protection than a woman’s interest in autonomy and dominion over her own body.”