A majority of likely Republican caucusgoers in Iowa approve of the state’s ban of most abortions after six weeks, the most recent Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa Poll shows.
The poll showed 58% of likely Republican caucusgoers said the so-called “fetal heartbeat” law “gets it about right” on the issue of abortion, the Register reported Wednesday. Thirty percent of respondents said the law is too restrictive of the procedure, and 9% said the law imposes too few restrictions.
The law bans most abortions after embryonic cardiac activity is detectable, usually after about six weeks of gestation, with narrow exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.
These poll results show that Iowans who plan to participate in the Republican caucuses on Jan. 15, 2024, do not necessarily share the same beliefs on abortion as the majority of Iowans. The March 2023 Iowa Poll found 61% of Iowans across all political leanings said they believe abortion should be legal in most or all cases.
A temporary injunction on the abortion law was granted July 17, three days after Gov. Kim Reynolds signed it at the Family Leadership Summit after a legislative special session. The injunction means abortion is still legal in Iowa up to 20 weeks of pregnancy. But abortion access advocates and medical providers said if enforced, the new law will outlaw most of the abortion procedures currently performed in Iowa.
President and CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States Ruth Richardson said in a statement Wednesday that Iowa’s ban will not only impact access to abortion, but access to obstetric and gynecological services as well.
“Where you live shouldn’t dictate the care you can access but that is not the reality in America today,” Richardson said. “When states ban abortion, when states criminalize doctors for providing life-saving procedures and deny them the right to use their training to help patients, it’s no surprise that practitioners choose other places to practice. But it doesn’t have to be this way, we can restore everyone’s freedom to decide what health care is best for them.”
The University of Iowa Obstetrics and Gynecological Residency is the only OB-GYN residency program in the state. Under its accreditation requirements, it must include training or access to training for providing pregnancy termination. If the new law is enforced, students must be provided with activities like simulations to learn how to administer these services, or must travel to areas where there are no restrictions on abortion to directly access clinical experience.
Students in the UI residency program spoke against the measure during the legislative special session, saying that the ban may motivate them to leave the state after their training. Iowa is currently facing a shortage of maternal health care resources — as of 2020, there were no OB-GYN providers in more than half of Iowa counties according to March of Dimes data.
During the regular 2023 legislative session, lawmakers passed measures introduced by Reynolds to address the maternal care shortage, including $560,000 in funding for the creation of a new OB-GYN fellowship program.
In addition to supporting abortion restrictions in Iowa, 54% of likely GOP caucusgoers also said they would be more likely to favor a candidate who supports a federal 15-week ban on abortion.
Former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have avoided directly weighing in on federal abortion law proposals. Some candidates, including former Vice President Mike Pence and U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, have said they support federal abortion restrictions such as a 15-week ban. Others have said abortion laws should be left to the states, including entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.
The Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa Poll was conducted Aug. 13-17 by Selzer & Co. with a sample of 406 registered voters in Iowa who are likely to attend the Republican caucuses. Results based on the full sample have a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.
Iowa Capital Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Iowa Capital Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kathie Obradovich for questions: info@iowacapitaldispatch.com. Follow Iowa Capital Dispatch on Facebook and Twitter.
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