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Iowa approves one of strictest abortion bills in US
The US state of Iowa has approved one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country, banning most abortions once a foetal heartbeat is detected. Republican lawmakers, who control both chambers, passed the bill in back-to-back votes, sending it to the governor's desk to sign into law.
If [signed], the bill would ban most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. Critics argue the bill makes having an abortion illegal before most women even realise they are pregnant.
[...] If [Governor Kim] Reynolds signs the bill into law, it will likely be challenged in court for possibly violating Roe v Wade, the US Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion in 1973. [...] Some Republican lawmakers welcomed the challenge. "I would love for the United States Supreme Court to look at this bill and have this as a vehicle to overturn Roe v. Wade," Republican Senator Jake Chapman said.
Also at NPR, Reuters, the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, and The Hill:
Nineteen states adopted a total of 63 restrictions to the procedure in 2017, which is the highest number of state laws on the issue since 2013, according to the Guttmacher Institute. State legislatures have proposed 15 bills that would ban abortions after 20 weeks and 11 bills that would ban abortions if the sole reason is a genetic anomaly like Down syndrome.
Related: Ohio Bill Would Ban Abortion when a Prenatal Test is Positive for Down Syndrome
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(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Friday May 04 2018, @05:12PM
This story pains me in another way. The Midwest was a practical, unpretentious, reasonably prosperous region that valued education and knowledge. Iowa has a reputation for having some of the best schools and tests in the nation.
The farmers went to church every Sunday, but weren't fanatic and reactionary about it. Church was not evangelical, it was social. And they were most definitely realists about life, and had a very low opinion of any city slicker moralizing to them, telling them how to run their farms morally or ethically, no matter which extreme they are coming from, PETA or religious fundamentalism. You raise livestock to milk and eat them. Cows give birth in the spring, and the farmers would manage everything about it. Don't want to lose any cows or calves if a little veterinary intervention will save them. Long before that, they would be pretty careful about the breeding. For instance, don't let a large breed of bull mate with a small breed of cow, or come spring that cow is going to have a rough time giving birth because the calf is just too big. She will need help, and lots of it.
To see the Midwest sink into this religious fundamentalist bullcrap is sickening. They've been hurting for a long time now, farms consolidated and most farmers forced out of the business. I don't doubt that's made them more socially conservative. They don't need to waste resources on this stupid legal challenge.