The Iowa Board of Medicine voted Friday to advance rules detailing the steps doctors must take to follow the “fetal heartbeat” abortion ban if it takes effect.
Iowa’s law that bans abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy was blocked by a court and cannot be enforced for now. But the board, which oversees physician licensure, is still required to move forward with administrative rules.
Doctors who spoke during the public comment portion of Friday’s meeting said they are concerned that the rules would require them to serve as sexual assault investigators, and make it very difficult for them to provide abortions under the exceptions in the law for rape, incest, and fetal abnormalities incompatible with life.
“It is clear that these rules are written to assure that most women and those who can become pregnant, and certainly girls who are victims of incest and rape, are prevented from access to abortion and choice,” said Deborah Turner, a doctor and president of the League of Women Voters.
She said she has cared for pregnant girls as young as 11, and it is “unrealistic and traumatizing” for patients to provide dates and details of their assault to doctors.
The proposal lists sections of Iowa law that define sexual assault, and doctors would have to determine if a patient was a victim of one of those crimes in order to provide an abortion after cardiac activity is detected in their pregnancy. Doctors would be required to include some details of the assault in the patient’s medical records.
Deputy Attorney General Leif Olson, who presented the proposal to the board, said the rules lay out what information the doctors must collect about rape or incest, but they don’t dictate which questions have to be asked.
“We trust that doctors in their professional judgment know how to…elucidate information from a patient to get to the root of a problem,” Olson said. “And in this case, that includes the root of the reason for why the woman is presenting herself to request an abortion.”
Connie Ryan, executive director of the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa, criticized the rules for using non-medical terms like “unborn child” instead of fetus or embryo. She also said the use of the word “woman” leaves out the fact that young girls can also become pregnant.
“We think that they are poorly written. They are written with a political agenda in mind,” Ryan said. “And we think that you should, as a board, go back to the drawing board and think about the people who are impacted by the rules.”
Olson said the rules include non-medical terms like “unborn child” and “fetal heartbeat” because those are used in the law.
If the law can be enforced, doctors who violate the rules could be subject to licensure discipline, not criminal penalties. This could include license suspension or revocation and fines among other forms of discipline.
At their meeting Friday, board members asked questions about the rules but did not offer their opinions. They voted to advance the proposal, which will open up a public comment period starting Dec. 13. The Board of Medicine will likely hold another vote on the proposed rules at its January meeting.
The Iowa Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments in the “fetal heartbeat” abortion case sometime in the next several months, and would then likely decide by the end of June 2024 whether the abortion ban can be enforced in the state.
