By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)

A special legislative session will get underway this morning at the state Capitol and Republican lawmakers plan to pass a bill to ban abortions after fetal activity can be detected, usually around the sixth week of a pregnancy. The bill has exceptions for medical emergencies and fetal abnormalities as well as cases of rape or incest.

Bob Vander Plaats is president and CEO of The Family Leader, a Christian conservative group that has registered in support of the so-called heartbeat law. He said the legislature will be sending a message to the Iowa Supreme Court, which recently deadlocked over the governor’s request to let the 2018 Fetal Heartbeat Act she signed go into effect.

“You have a Supreme Court…that didn’t uphold the law. They even said they thought the legislature was being ‘hypothetical’ when they passed the law,” Vander Plaats said during a recent appearance on Iowa PBS. “…Make sure the Supreme Court understands this was not a hypothetical exercise, repass it and let it run through the system again.”

Governor Reynolds said her faith leads her to protect life when she signed the signed the Fetal Heartbeat Act in 2018. “I believe that all innocent life is precious and sacred and as governor I have pledged to do everything in my power to protect it,” Reynolds said on May 4, 2018. “…For me, it’s immoral to stop an innocent, beating heart.”

The Interfaith Alliance of Iowa said the bill imposes the views of some Christians on others. The Right Reverend Betsey Monnet (MAWN-it), Bishop of the Episocopal Diocese of Iowa, said her denomination has supported abortion rights since 1967.

“Women in Iowa who become pregnant should be able to make their own health care decisions in consultant with their doctors and, if they choose, with their own faith leaders or clergy,” Monnett said.

Some Iowa doctors say the bill is a “functional ban” on abortion. Dr. Emily Boevers (BAY-vers) is an OB-GYN at the hospital in Waverly.

“I’m very concerned about the dramatic responsibility that it’s going to place on health care providers to decide how urgently somebody might die from their pregnancy,” she said.

Dr. Francesca Turner, an OB-GYN in Des Moines, said the bill could delay critical care. “Putting the government in the middle of the physician-patient relationship is going to impact our care,” she said, “impact our ability to make medical decisions.”

A public hearing on the bill is scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m. and end at 11. Republican legislative leaders plan to set time limits on debate, so the bill is likely to pass before midnight.