Republicans in the Iowa House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday that would raise criminal penalties for terminating or seriously injuring a pregnancy without the pregnant person’s consent, and would change the law’s wording from “terminates a human pregnancy” to “causes the death of an unborn person.”
The bill defines unborn person as “an individual organism of the species homo sapiens from fertilization to live birth.”
Democrats like Rep. Heather Matson of Ankeny said the bill is an attempt to establish fetal personhood, and she said that would put Iowans’ access to in vitro fertilization at risk.
“What a tragedy it would be for all Iowans if what has come to pass in Alabama comes to pass here, because as written, this bill does not explicitly protect IVF and sets a precedent with new language of unborn person,” she said.
Last month, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are children and have a right to life. That could have led to homicide charges for IVF clinic employees who discard leftover and unviable embryos, so clinics stopped offering some fertility services.
The governor of Alabama signed a law Wednesday providing civil and criminal immunity for IVF providers and patients, allowing them to resume fertility treatments.
Rep. Skyler Wheeler, R-Hull, said the unborn person definition already exists in Iowa’s abortion laws, and that has not affected IVF.
“This bill is very simple,” he said. “It increases penalties for crimes that are ridiculous. Killing a mother and/or her unborn baby, you should face some pretty stiff penalties for that.”
The bill says criminal penalties do not apply to an act or omission of the pregnant person, or when the termination or injury is caused by an approved medical procedure.
Rep. Beth Wessel Kroeschell, D-Ames, proposed an amendment to ensure IVF and birth control access are protected, but she withdrew it and prevented a vote.
She said the bill is a waste of time and highlighted a nonpartisan analysis that found no convictions for nonconsensual termination of pregnancy in fiscal year 2023 and one parole admission in that time.
“So the crime is already in code. And according to [the Legislative Services Agency], there are so few convictions under the code section they have no data,” Wessel-Kroeschell said. “So why are we changing the law? Nonconsensual loss of pregnancy is not even occurring in Iowa.”
She said the bill is anti-abortion propaganda that is another attempt to deny Iowans’ reproductive rights.
Wheeler pushed back on Wessel-Kroeschell’s statements.
“There are 40 states currently in the United States that have varying degrees of protection and justice for pregnant women and their unborn children who are victims of violence, which is the focus of this,” he said.
The bill passed on a 58-36 vote, with three Republicans joining all Democrats in voting against the bill.
The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration.
