February 11, 2021

Iowa Legislators to Consider Pro-Life Constitutional Amendment

Iowa legislators will soon consider a constitutional amendment declaring that their constitution neither grants a right to abortion nor requires the state to fund abortion. If the amendment is approved by both houses, the people of Iowa will have the ability to vote on it in 2024.

The amendment would add Iowa to the growing list of states considering such amendments. Louisiana voters accepted their state's "Love Life" Amendment last month, and the Kansas legislators approved the "Value them Both" Amendment just two weeks ago.

Iowa's amendment, similarly to the others, simply states, “Iowa does not recognize, grant, or secure a right to abortion or require the public funding of abortion.”

These amendments will allow states to ban abortions within their borders if Roe v. Wade is overturned at the federal level. They will also allow state governments to withdraw funding to abortion clinics if judges previously found that their constitutions implied a right to abortion. This is the case for Iowa, which had a 72-hour waiting period law overturned when the Iowa Supreme Court opined, “a woman’s right to decide whether to terminate a pregnancy is a fundamental right under the Iowa Constitution.”

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