Iowa’s law banning most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy is now in effect.
Iowa joins more than a dozen other states where abortion access has been sharply curbed in the roughly two years since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
The new law, which went into effect 8:00 a.m. Monday in Iowa, prohibits abortions after cardiac activity can be detected, which is roughly at six weeks of pregnancy and before many women know they are pregnant.
There are limited exceptions in cases of rape, incest, fetal abnormality or when the life of the mother is in danger.
Previously, abortion in Iowa was legal up to 20 weeks of pregnancy.
It’s an outcome Iowa’s abortion providers have been fighting but still prepared for, shoring up abortion access in neighboring states and drawing on the lessons learned where bans went into effect more swiftly.
In Minnesota, clinics that provide reproductive care had already seen more women from out of state use their services and they expect the numbers to rise because of the Iowa law.
"Let me just be clear," Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan said last week while visiting a medical facility in Bloomington. "For our friends in Iowa, you are welcome here, there are people who will provide care for you."
In Minnesota, a court ruling in 2022 eliminated a mandatory waiting period for minors seeking an abortion to notify parents.
An anti-abortion group says that ruling blocks Minnesotans from enacting reasonable protections for unborn children and their mothers.
"You're talking about the life of a human child in the womb," said Moses Bratrud of the Minnesota Family Council. "It's distressing that people are coming here, that Minnesota has become an abortion sanctuary. That that is something that we're really celebrating."
Across the US, the status of abortion has changed constantly since the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, with trigger laws immediately going into effect, states passing new restrictions or expansions of access and court battles putting those on hold.