Des Moines, Iowa — Republicans in the Iowa House and Senate have taken a first step toward amending the Iowa Constitution to say it doesn’t protect abortion rights.
The House approved language for the proposed amendment Tuesday night and the Senate approved it today Wednesday. Senate President Jake Chapman, a Republican from Adel, says it’s a response to a 2018 Iowa Supreme Court ruling.
While House and Senate Republicans agreed on the amendment’s wording, the same version must clear the legislature in 2023 or 2024 before it would be presented to voters. Democrats say it’s wrong to put a woman’s basic right to an abortion on the ballot. Senator Claire Celsi, a Democrat from Des Moines, says if the proposed amendment passes and the U-S Supreme Court overturns Roe v Wade, Republican legislators will be able to ban abortion in Iowa.
Representative Christina Bohannon, a Democrat from Iowa City, is a University of Iowa law professor.
But Bohannon says before the right to privacy was recognized in Roe v Wade, abortions were done in secret. The U.S. Supreme Court announced this week it would hear arguments over a Mississippi law that bans abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy.
