Abortion in Iowa

Abortion in Iowa is illegal for physicians after detection of embryonic cardiac-cell activity. Embryonic cardiac-cell activity can be detected from around six weeks after the pregnant woman’s last menstrual period, when many women are not yet aware that they are pregnant. Exceptions for the abortion ban after detected embryonic cardiac-cell activity include some instances of rape, incest, fetal abnormalities and threats to the pregnant woman’s life. However, HF 732, the Iowa Heartbeat Bill, states that the ban does not apply to the pregnant woman, as it says, “This section shall not be construed to impose civil or criminal liability on a woman upon whom an abortion is performed…” This, in effect, means that self-managed abortion is legal throughout pregnancy in Iowa.

Prior to 2024, abortion was legal up to 22 weeks in Iowa. In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which enabled states to ban abortion. In the aftermath of the decision, Republican lawmakers in Iowa enacted a six-week abortion ban in July 2023, which was blocked within days, then later unblocked in July 2024 with the approval of the Iowa Supreme Court.

Over recent decades, the number of abortion clinics in Iowa has generally decreased, and state legislators have regularly introduced bills to severely restrict abortion. Public opinion in Iowa remains about evenly split on whether abortion should be legal.

In 2017, Iowa rejected millions of dollars in federal funding for Medicaid as part of their efforts to try to defund Planned Parenthood and its abortion services in the state. In 2020, it was reported that abortions in Iowa went up for the first time in decades—25 percent—with the loss of that federal aid attributed to the increase.

In 2018, Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, Inc., Jill Meadows, M.D., and Emma Goldman Clinic (petitioners) filed a lawsuit seeking declaratory and injunctive relief in state court, arguing the early abortion ban violated the Iowa State Constitution. Courts supported their injunction request, saying the law violated the state's constitution. A #StoptheBans protest occurred at the Statehouse in Des Moines on May 21, 2019.