Iowa becomes latest US State to enact near-total abortion ban

After a year-long legal battle, Iowa became the latest US state to enact a near-total abortion ban on Monday, keeping the charged issue of reproductive rights at the forefront of November's presidential election.

The law prohibits terminating nearly all pregnancies after six weeks -- the point at which cardiac activity can be detected -- even though many women do not realize they are pregnant at this stage.

Previously in the Midwestern state, abortion was permitted within up to 20 weeks of gestation.

Initially passed last year, the ban was placed on hold by a judge but then reinstated following a narrow 4-3 ruling by Iowa's supreme court last month.

"This morning, more than 1.5 million women in Iowa woke up with fewer rights than they had last night because of another Trump Abortion Ban," US Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, wrote on X.

Her Republican opponent, former president Donald Trump, appointed three conservative Supreme Court justices who in 2022 helped overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that had guaranteed a national right to abortion for nearly 50 years.

Iowa's Republican governor, Kim Reynolds, said last week that lifting the injunction was "a victory for life," adding: "There is nothing more sacred and no cause more worthy than protecting innocent unborn lives."

The Iowa law states exceptions for cases of rape and incest, as well as situations where the mother's life is at risk or the fetus has an abnormality so great it would result in still birth.

However, in states with similar bans, these exemptions have often proven ineffective, with hospitals and doctors hesitant to risk prosecution, forcing women to seek care out of state.

"Patients will be forced to travel hundreds of miles from home to find abortion care, if they have the means to do so," said Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights.

"Others will be forced to carry pregnancies to term, regardless of their determination of what is best for their lives, health, families, and future. People with dire pregnancy complications will be turned away from hospitals until they are crashing."

Women can still obtain medical abortions via online clinics that mail pills, websites that will sell them without a consultation, or community networks of volunteers who can help people obtain them for free.

 Challenge for Republicans 

Iowa is now among 22 states that have set stricter standards for abortion since the fall of Roe, ranging from full bans to earlier gestational limits.

Trump carried Iowa by more than eight points in 2020, and is expected to win this year too.

Still, the issue of abortion remains challenging for Republicans, who run the risk of alienating independent and moderate voters -- a factor that has helped Democrats in numerous races since 2022.

A March 2023 poll by the Des Moines Register/Mediacom found that 61 percent of Iowans believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 35 percent believe it should be illegal in most or all cases -- a trend consistent with national polling.

Democrats, on the other hand, have been energized by President Joe Biden's decision to withdraw from the race in favor of Vice President Harris, long seen as the administration's true champion of reproductive rights.

"I don't think people fully understand just how angry women are about Roe being overturned -- Harris has the ability to drive that home," feminist author Jessica Valenti, who runs "Abortion, Every Day" on Substack, told AFP recently.

Polling by YouGov released last week found Harris enjoying a 12-point advantage over Trump on abortion, significantly higher than the five-point lead Biden held over Trump in early July.

On the Republican side, Trump's running mate J.D. Vance has made the divide between the two parties even starker, expressing a desire to make abortion "illegal nationally," voting against protections for in vitro fertilization, and likening abortion to "slavery."