Iowa
Ranking: 37
- In 2002, Iowa issued an “Information, Not Criminalization” directive. The directive purportedly makes information on family planning, abortion, adoption, and other reproductive health information available to women at their request. However, the information is not mandated, and there are no penalties for failure to supply the information or to provide access to the information.
- A physician may not perform an abortion on an unmarried or never married minor under the age of 18 until at least 48 hours after written notice has been provided to a parent or grandparent, unless the minor is the victim of rape, incest, or child abuse; there is a medical emergency; or a court order is issued.
- Iowa taxpayers are required to pay for abortions for women eligible for state medical assistance if the continued pregnancy endangers the woman’s life; the unborn child is physically deformed, mentally deficient, or afflicted with a congenital condition; or the pregnancy is the result of reported rape or incest.
- Only physicians licensed to practice medicine and surgery in the State of Iowa or osteopathic physicians and surgeons may perform abortion.
- Iowa has an enforceable abortion reporting law, but does not require the reporting of information to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The measure pertains to both surgical and nonsurgical abortions.
- Health insurance plans that provide prescription coverage must also provide coverage for contraception. No exemption is provided for religious employers.
- Iowa does not protect unborn children from criminal violence.
- However, it does provide that an attack on a pregnant woman that results in a stillbirth or miscarriage is a criminal assault. It also requires an investigation into a newborn’s death when 1) the death is believed to have occurred during or after delivery and when the delivery was only attended by the mother; or 2) the medical examiner otherwise believes investigation is warranted.
- The state allows wrongful death (civil) actions only when an unborn child is born alive following a negligent or criminal act and dies thereafter.
- Iowa has created a specific affirmative duty of physicians to provide medical care and treatment to infants born alive after viability.
- The state defines substance abuse during pregnancy as “child abuse” under its civil child welfare statutes. Iowa also requires healthcare professionals to report suspected prenatal drug exposure and to test newborns for drug exposure when there is suspicion of prenatal drug use or abuse.
- Iowa has authorized stillbirth certificates.
- Under the “Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative,” Iowa allows and protects destructive embryo research and allows cloning-for-biomedical-research, while prohibiting cloning-to-produce-children—thus, making it a clone-and-kill state.
- Further, the state does not prohibit fetal experimentation, nor does it promote ethical forms of research.
- Iowa does not regulate egg harvesting or assisted reproductive technologies.
- Assisting a suicide constitutes a felony.
- Iowa maintains a Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) Paradigm Program.
- An individual who objects on religious or moral grounds is not required to participate in an abortion unless that abortion constitutes “emergency medical treatment” of a serious physical condition necessary to save the woman’s life.
- A private or religiously-affiliated hospital is not required to perform or permit abortions that are not necessary to save the woman’s life.
- Iowa currently provides no protection for the rights of healthcare providers who conscientiously object to participation in human cloning, destructive embryo research, or other forms of immoral medical research.
- Iowa considered legislation related to abortion funding and insurance coverage of abortion, as well as a number of measures related to informed consent including reflection period requirements, an ultrasound requirement, a requirement that a woman be given the opportunity to hear the heartbeat of her unborn child prior to abortion, and a prohibition of coercion.
- The state also considered legislation regulating the provision of abortion-inducing drugs and abortion clinic regulations.
- Iowa enacted a requirement for stillbirth certificates.
- Iowa created a Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) Paradigm Program.
- Abortion Mandate Opt-Out Act
- Defunding the Abortion Industry and Advancing Women’s Health Act
- Women’s Right to Know Act
- Women’s Health Protection Act (abortion clinic regulations)
- Abortion-Inducing Drugs Safety Act (including prohibition on so-called “telemed abortions”)
- Crimes Against the Unborn Child Act
- Women’s Ultrasound Right to Know Act
- Coercive Abuse Against Mothers Prevention Act
- Child Protection Act
- Joint Resolution Commending Pregnancy Centers
- Unborn Wrongful Death Act
- Pregnant Woman’s Protection Act
- Human Cloning Prohibition Act
- Destructive Embryo Research Act
- Prohibition on Public Funding of Human Cloning and Destructive Embryo Research Act
- Healthcare Freedom of Conscience Act
