WASHINGTON (12:30 AM) – Late tonight, the Iowa General Assembly met in a special legislative session to pass legislation protecting unborn children from abortion after the heartbeat has been detected.

The bill passed in a vote of 56 to 34 in the Iowa House and 32 to 17 in the Iowa Senate.

“We thank Governor Kim Reynolds and the pro-life members of the Iowa legislature who are champions for the right to life,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “We also thank our affiliate Iowa Right to Life as well as pro-life people across the state of Iowa for their commitment and hard work toward protecting unborn children.”

On July 5, pro-life Governor Kim Reynolds called for the special legislative session in response to the June 15 Iowa Supreme Court’s 3-3 decision regarding a lower court injunction against Iowa’s 2018 Fetal Heartbeat Law. The 2018 law was designed to protect unborn babies from abortion after the heartbeat has been detected. The split decision by the Iowa Supreme Court allows a lower court injunction against the 2018 law to stand.

Tuesday’s vote in the Iowa legislature brings forward a Fetal Heartbeat Law and places it under the guidelines rendered in the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

Founded in 1968, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of affiliates in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia and more than 3,000 local chapters, is the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. Recognized as the flagship of the pro-life movement, National Right to Life works through legislation and education to protect innocent human life from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide and euthanasia.