Abortions in Iowa drop 40%, out of state care increases after near-total ban

Abortions are down 40%, but travel out of state has increased 159%, nearly four months into Iowa’s near-total abortion ban.

Abortions in Iowa decreased almost 40% after the near-total ban went into effect at the end of July this year.

In one month, abortions dropped from a 2024 monthly average of 400 down to an estimated 250 in August, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive freedom nonprofit.

The numbers include abortions patients got in clinics as well as medication abortions, where patients got the pills through telehealth either from Iowa-based providers or from providers in states that protect doctors.

The August drop, the study says, shows that Iowans either had to flee the state to get abortion care or they were forced to carry the unwanted pregnancy.

Banned before you know you’re pregnant

Iowa’s near-total ban was passed in a special session in 2023 following the 2022 US Supreme Court case that overturned Roe v. Wade and the Iowa Supreme Court ruling that Iowa’s Constitution contains no right to abortion.

The ban prohibits abortion so early in pregnancy most people don’t know they’re pregnant—when electrical impulses can be detected in the fetus. Anti-abortion figures falsely call this a “heartbeat,” despite no heart being present.

Iowa’s ban does have limited exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother, but such bans in other states show exceptions to abortion bans don’t work in practice.

The rape and incest exceptions require pregnant people report their attacks within 45 days (about six weeks) for rape and 140 days (20 weeks) for incest. Most cases of rape and incest are never reported, especially not within a few weeks.

Iowa doctors say the “life of the mother” exception is vaguely worded, and the Iowa Board of Medicine hasn’t provided clarity for how doctors should interpret it. The board is responsible for enforcing the ban and deciding whether physicians break it.

Polling shows 59% of Iowans oppose the near-total ban and 64% think abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

Abortion ban: What impacts Iowans can expect going forward

Out of state care up 159%

With Iowa’s maternal care deserts and a 24-hour waiting period passed in 2020, Iowans have already faced problems accessing abortion. Planned Parenthood North Central States—Iowa’s largest abortion provider—also reported big changes since the ban took effect.

The number of abortions performed in Iowa has dropped 64% from two months before the ban took effect (June and July) to the two months after (August and September), Ruth Richardson, CEO for Planned Parenthood North Central States, told Iowa Public Radio.

More Iowans are fleeing the state to get abortions, and patient navigators at Planned Parenthood who help people find out-of-state care said patients are more scared and stressed now.

“These data confirm what we expected when Iowa adopted a law banning abortion as early as six weeks,” Richardson said in the Guttmacher Institute news release. “Our patients call us, full of fear and questions. Some come to our health center and leave devastated after finding out they are past the ban’s cutoff.”

Iowans have mainly gone to Illinois, Minnesota and Nebraska for abortion care. Planned Parenthood has increased staffing and resources at its Minnesota and Nebraska clinics to prepare for the ban to take effect.

Richardson told IPR that the number of Iowans who have traveled out of the state to get care at Planned Parenthood clinics has increased 159%.

For people who need financial help to travel, abortion funds including the Iowa Abortion Access Fund and its partner, Chicago Abortion Fund, have provided the financial aid and resources patients need.