Abortion rights roundup: July 7, 2023

This series is a weekly roundup of abortion news, covering various statewide laws and bans, those who stand up to them, and the ongoing push by anti-abortion conservatives to restrict abortion care and erase bodily autonomy. 

Iowa’s anti-abortion governor calls special session after brutal defeat on restrictive bans

In June, the Iowa Supreme Court issued a split 3-3 decision on a proposed six-week abortion ban in the state. The court’s ruling both upheld a 2019 district court ruling and effectively ended — at least for now — Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds’ ability to restore the restrictive ban. 

Abortion in Iowa is currently legal through up to 20 weeks of pregnancy.  

In response to the court’s decision, on Wednesday, July 5, Reynolds called for a special session of the Iowa General Assembly to pass new abortion legislation. Set to take place on July 11, the session was called “with the sole purpose of enacting legislation that addresses abortion and protects unborn lives.”

“I believe the pro-life movement is the most important human rights cause of our time,” Reynolds said in a statement. 

Abortion restrictions like the “fetal heartbeat bill” that Reynolds seems determined to put into place have disproportionately impacted pregnant people of color across the nation, and Iowa has some of the country’s highest maternal mortality rates.

According to a 2020 report from the Iowa Department of Public Health, Iowa’s pregnancy-related maternal mortality was 9.4 per 100,000 live births; for Black Iowans, it was 36.9 per 100,000 live births. 

Democratic candidates in swing states such as Wisconsin and Georgia are pummeling the GOP on reproductive rights

Democrats are seizing on abortion rights to attack potential Republican opponents. 

The 2024 elections will be even more heated than usual as Senate Democrats need to defend 23 of the 34 seats up for reelection, while Republicans will have just 10 to defend.

In a battleground state such as Wisconsin, the topic of abortion rights will likely dominate campaign conversations — especially since, according to polling, the state’s 1849 abortion law is extremely unpopular. 

According to NBC News, Ben Wikler, chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, said: 

What we see in Wisconsin is also playing out nationally, which is that the GOP has built a machine around stoking up anger about Roe v. Wade but has never been able to do anything about it. … But now that the dog has caught the car, they have no message and no answers to tens of millions of Americans who don’t think politicians should be jumping between them and their doctor in the moments when they’re making their most intimate and personal decisions.

A citizen-led initiative in Ohio could be a bellwether for more ballot measures on abortion in 2024

On Wednesday, a coalition of abortion rights groups, including Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom and Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights, announced that it had successfully gathered more than 700,000 signatures — nearly double the number they needed — to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot in November that would ensure a right to abortion in the state. 

The petition, titled “Amendment to Limit Government Interference with Abortion,”  states: “No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider. This amendment does not change the Legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion.”

Advocates in Florida and Missouri are following closely in their footsteps. 

In April, Floridians Protecting Freedom, a statewide campaign of allied organizations and concerned citizens, launched with one intention: to put the question of abortion on the ballot in November 2024. In order to do that, the campaign will have to gather and submit at least 891,523 valid petition signatures to the state by Feb. 1. 

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a six-week abortion ban into law in April, but the procedure is currently legal for up to 15 weeks pending a review of the more restrictive ban by the state’s Supreme Court. 

Missouri’s abortion law is one of the nation’s most restrictive, with exceptions for medical emergencies but none for rape or incest. Voters in the state could have the opportunity to change that in 2024. 

In March, a group called Missourians for Constitutional Freedom filed 11 versions of a proposed initiative petition with the secretary of state’s office to amend the state’s Constitution and restore a right to abortion care. Each of the 11 versions contains variations on language that could be used to decide at what stage of pregnancy abortion could be obtained and what legal limits would be imposed on the procedure, if any. 

The proposed initiatives state that the “government shall not infringe upon a person’s fundamental right to reproductive freedom,” according to the Missouri Independent. 

After a legal battle by Missouri GOP lawmakers to fight the initiative, the pro-abortion rights group is now in the process of gathering the signatures needed to place the proposed constitutional amendments on the 2024 ballot.

On June 20, a judge ordered Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey to approve Republican Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick’s assessment of the proposal by the end of the following day. Bailey had refused to approve the estimate of the proposal’s cost, arguing it would cost the state immense lost revenue that wouldn’t be earned by people who wouldn’t be born. 

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.