Iowa’s six-week abortion ban starts today. Advocates are calling it ‘devastating’

Advocates are decrying Iowa’s heartbeat abortion ban as “devastating” as the restrictive law went into effect on Monday morning, complicating the already dire abortion landscape in the Midwest.

Last week, a judge ordered the six-week ban to take effect today at 8 a.m. That ruling came after the state’s supreme court cleared the way for the law when it reversed the year-long temporary injunction on June 28. Limited exceptions are available in the case of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother.

The Iowa Abortion Access Fund, considered one of the oldest abortion funds in the nation, condemned the ruling: “We now live in a state where pregnant people have fewer rights than a bag of trash.”

The statement referred to anIowa supreme court justice’s 2023 opinion to block the enforcement of the fetal heartbeat bill: “It would be ironic and troubling for our court to become the first state supreme court in the nation to hold that trash set out in a garbage can for collection is entitled to more constitutional protection than a woman’s interest in autonomy and dominion over her own body.”

“People with uteruses in the state now have less of an expectation of privacy about their own bodies than a bag of trash sitting on the curb,” Lyz Lenz, who sits on the Board of Directors, told The Independent.

She pointed out that the state already has the fewest OB-GYNs per capita. “The reality is that not only is this ban going to have a devastating effect on people who need reproductive health care, but it's also going to force doctors out of the state because it's written so poorly, and so vaguely that the enforcement mechanisms are really unclear.”

The fund announced it planned to partner with Chicago Abortion Fund — which received