Iowa's Six-Week Abortion Ban Approved By State Supreme Court Full Of Republican Appointees
This is so gross I don't even have a Music Man or State Fair lyric to describe it.
As much as I appreciate Iowa’s efforts to contribute to Chicago’s tourism industry — and I can tell we’ve got a lot of tourists this year, just by the sheer numbers of people on Michigan Avenue patiently waiting for the little walking man to light up before crossing the entirely empty street — outlawing abortion after six weeks is not the way to do it.
But here we are! The Iowa Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the state’s no-good-very-bad ban on abortion after six weeks — before many even know they are pregnant — is just fine, despite a lower court’s ruling blocking it from going into effect. The Court itself, unsurprisingly, is made up of six conservative justices appointed by Governor Kim Reynolds, none of whom have any chance of getting knocked up themselves.
The law does allow some exceptions. Abortions will be allowed in cases of rape, although the victim will be required to report the assault to police within 45 days and, in cases of incest, within 140 days — which is a lot to ask of sexual assault victims, particularly given how rape victims are often treated by law enforcement. It will also be allowed to save the life of a pregnant person or in cases of fatal fetal abnormalities.
As Iowa resident Lyz Lenz points out at MSNBC, this decision will not just have devastating consequences for those who are pregnant and don’t want to be and those with high-risk pregnancies, it will also hurt those with wanted, normal-level-of-risk-but-still-need-medical-care pregnancies. The state already has a shortage of reproductive care and maternal health services, and this law will make it so even fewer OB-GYNs will practice there.
She writes:
A study done by the nonprofit March of Dimes found that one-third of Iowa counties are maternal care deserts, which means they have no maternity wards, no OB-GYNs and no birthing centers.
As many as 61% of Iowa hospitals have no labor and delivery wards. And Iowa currently ranks 49th of the 50 states, second only to Arkansas, for maternal care, with 1.49 obstetricians per 10,000 women.
That same study found that 41.4% of Iowa women live in counties where they cannot access reproductive care services, and live with “very high or high vulnerability” to “adverse outcomes” such as an unexpected pregnancy, preterm birth, anxiety and depression.
Clearly, this is a bad situation, and Republicans in the Iowa legislature and Governor Kim Reynolds have no problem with making it worse.
OB-GYNs — particularly those trained in dealing with high-risk pregnancies — have been fleeing abortion ban states, medical students have avoided doing their residencies in them, and labor and delivery units have closed. Why? Because, weirdly enough, no one wants to go to prison for providing their patients with the standard of care appropriate for their given situations.
“As the heartbeat bill finally becomes law, we are deeply committed to supporting women in planning for motherhood, and promoting fatherhood and its importance in parenting,” Reynolds wrote on social media. That is all well and good, but also not all that helpful if no one can get the necessary care they need while they are pregnant or get to a labor and delivery unit in time.
Sixty percent of Iowans support the right to abortion, but, unfortunately, it’s a lot more difficult for them to pass an amendment to the state constitution in Iowa than it is in many other states. In order for that to happen, it must first pass through the state’s legislature, which is obviously very unlikely to happen right now given the Republican majority.
Hopefully, for those who don’t want to sacrifice access to maternal care for the joy of forcing people to give birth against their will, Iowans will get on it and get those Republicans out of office so that a constitutional amendment protecting their right to abortion care can be brought to the voters.
Because as much as we love tourists coming to our fair city of Chicago and to Illinois in general, we’d really rather they come here on vacation, in order to spend some nice time at the Field Museum, on the architecture boat tour or perhaps just checking out the very confusing giant Starbucks or places they’ve seen on “The Bear” in real life than have to spend it in our abortion clinics.
PREVIOUSLY:
Six weeks is a fucking fig leaf, and the people who support it know that.
As for putting in the exception for life and fatal fetal abnormalities, well, that's just all of late term abortion that they're talking about there. Weird that they would allow abortion up until the moment of birth -- or after!
Conclusion: Matthew McDermott, Dana Oxley, Christopher McDonald, and David May are evil. E. V. I. L. L. E.
OK- One more quick comment before I go about my normal day. This court has, within days, ruled that the executive branch as a governing apparatus, has no power while at the same time the president, our chief executive, is essentially a king above the law. This seems intellectually inconsistent. However, it is ideologically consistent, sort of, I guess. I am going to make breakfast and ignore the sick, sinking sensation. Hey- is that an iceberg up ahead?