Iowa Poll: Most Iowans oppose state's 6-week abortion ban law now in effect
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A majority of Iowans oppose the state’s new “fetal heartbeat” law, which bans most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, according to a new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll.
The poll found that 59% of Iowans — including 69% of women — disapprove of the new restrictions. It found 37% of Iowans favor the new law, and 5% are not sure.
This latest Iowa Poll is the first test of Iowans’ views on abortion since the state’s six-week ban went into effect July 29.
Iowans’ support for abortion rights has continued to rise since the pandemic and in the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022, Iowa Poll results show.
Now, 64% of Iowa adults say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, a new high since the Iowa Poll began asking the question in 2008. That compares with 33% who say abortion should be illegal in most or all cases and 3% who are not sure.
This poll of 811 Iowans was conducted by Selzer & Co. from Sept. 8-11. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
The new “fetal heartbeat” law, which is among the most restrictive in the nation, prohibits abortion once fetal cardiac activity is detected in a pregnancy and includes narrow exceptions for rape, incest, fatal fetal abnormalities and to save the life of the pregnant woman.
It replaced Iowa’s previous law, which allowed abortions until about 20 weeks.
The poll found widespread disapproval of the new law among many groups of Iowans, including 91% of Democrats, 88% of suburban women, 78% of those who identify with no religious group and 71% of all suburban adults.
Among the half-dozen demographic groups likely to favor the six-week ban are Republicans (67%), evangelicals (58%), fathers of children younger than 18 (54%) and residents of the 4th Congressional District, married men and white men with college degrees (each at 50%).
GOP-controlled Legislature passes 6-week ban in 2023; court gives green light this year
Iowa’s hotly contested abortion ban was passed by the Republican-majority Iowa Legislature in a marathon one-day special session last year. The law was blocked by a legal challenge until earlier this year, when the Iowa Supreme Court ordered an injunction on the ban to be lifted.
More than two in three Iowa women (69%) oppose the law, compared with 27% who favor the ban. Four percent are not sure.
Tiara Soupene, a 27-year-old poll respondent from Tiffin, is among those who oppose the abortion ban. As a nurse who cares for women in pregnancy, she said cutting off access to abortion care would mean more women put at risk.
“I know the outcome,” said Soupene, a self-identified Democrat. “I know how easily an ectopic pregnancy can rupture, and then you can go septic or you can bleed to death.”
Soupene is also a trained sexual assault nurse examiner who handles rape kits for women after they’ve been sexually assaulted. Even with the new ban’s exceptions, she fears that those who become pregnant won’t be able to get abortion care because they’ll be unable to prove the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest.
“I’m worried we’ll get to the point where people will say, ‘Well, how do you know that for sure? Where really is the proof?’” she said.
Attitudes toward Iowa’s new abortion law are closely split among Iowa men, with 48% opposing the law. 46% in favor and 6% who are unsure.
Poll respondent Eric May, a 63-year-old Cedar Rapids resident and self-identified Republican, supports Iowa’s six-week ban.
May, an evangelical, says he believes abortion is murder in any circumstances and does not support any exceptions. Although he said he would like to see a law that bans abortion at conception, May believes Iowa’s current law is the “best we can attain today under the political environment we’re in.”
“This was fought tooth and nail to get where we’re at today,” said May, who works as a telecommunications technician. “Even if with the strong majorities (in the Iowa Legislature) that we currently have that got the six-week ban into place, getting a ban closer to conception is going to be very difficult.”
Support for legal abortion continues to grow among Iowans
The 64% of Iowans who support legal abortion includes 25% who say it should be legal in all cases and 39% who say it should be legal in most cases.
By comparison, the 33% of Iowans who oppose abortion includes 26% who say it should be illegal in most cases and 7% who say it should be illegal in all cases; 3% are not sure.
The Iowa Poll has measured Iowans’ views on abortion seven times since September 2018, and once before in 2008, with the latest findings showing the highest support.
In a March 2023 Iowa Poll, the most recent test of this issue, 61% of Iowans said abortion should be legal in most or all cases, and 35% said it should be illegal in most or all cases.
Poll respondent Jessa Bears, a 38-year-old farmer living in Farragut, is an abortion rights supporter who said she believes the government shouldn’t have a say in a person’s decision to seek the procedure.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, nearly two-dozen states have enacted greater restrictions on abortion. Bears, a self-identified Democrat, said watching these laws be passed has been “terrifying.”
Bears worries that Iowa’s law could exacerbate challenges to recruit health care providers for rural communities, which already face a severe shortage of maternity care. She said her community has an emergency room, but if she needs care from an urgent care clinic or a specialty physician, she must drive at least an hour away.
“There’s just so many gray areas in medical decisions that to have these black-and-white laws just make no sense to me,” she said. “You paint it with a broad brush, and it’s going to cause problems — a lot more problems than I think they even realize when they’re passing the dang law.”
Support for legal abortion is heavily split among party lines, with 92% of Democrats saying they support abortion in all or most cases and 7% saying abortion should be illegal in all or most cases.
By comparison, a majority of Republicans, 63%, say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. Thirty-two percent say abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
Independents, by contrast, are much more supportive of abortion rights, with 70% saying abortion should be legal in all or most cases and 26% saying it should be illegal in all or most cases.
Corey Baldwin, a 51-year-old poll respondent living in Ridgeway, is a self-identified Republican who believes abortion should be illegal in most cases. He said he believes abortion should be restricted to certain circumstances, such as rape, incest or to preserve the life of the pregnant woman.
However, Baldwin’s thoughts on Iowa’s six-week ban are complicated.
The self-employed truck driver has four daughters, and he agrees most women likely wouldn’t know they are pregnant before six weeks. But he said he doesn’t agree that abortions should take place much later in pregnancy.
“Maybe six weeks is too short,” Baldwin said. “It’s a tough topic. There’s pros and cons on both sides, but my biggest thing is that I just don’t think (abortion) should be used as birth control.”
Iowa Supreme Court\'s approval rating tied to Iowans’ abortion views
The Iowa Poll also tested Iowans’ opinions of the Iowa Supreme Court, which cleared the way for the state’s abortion ban to go into effect earlier this year.
About half, 49%, of poll respondents say they approve of the state Supreme Court, while 33% disapprove and 18% are not sure.
The latest poll shows Iowans’ views on abortion are tied to their approval of the justices.
Sixty-nine percent of those who say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases say they approve of the state’s top court. Fourteen percent say they disapprove, and 18% are not sure.
A plurality of those who support legal abortion disapprove of the Iowa Supreme Court (44%), while 39% approve and 17% of that group are not sure.
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May, the poll respondent from Cedar Rapids, said he approves of the Iowa Supreme Court primarily because of its recent ruling on the six-week abortion ban.
“I am in favor of what they're currently doing, and the fact that they did allow it to go through,” May said.
Bears, the poll respondent from Farragut, disapproves of the Iowa Supreme Court, saying she believes the justices were “playing politics” in allowing Iowa’s stricter abortion law to go into effect.
“It happened relatively quickly after the federal Supreme Court ruling, so I feel it was already loaded in the cannon, ready to pull the trigger as soon as they had the means. Then, boom, it was done,” she said.
These new findings on the court’s job performance show little change from July 2022, the last time the Iowa Poll tested this issue. At that time, 48% of Iowans approved of the court, while 28% disapproved.
In the February 2019 Iowa Poll, 59% of Iowans approved of the state Supreme Court, while 14% disapproved.
Michaela Ramm covers health care for the Des Moines Register. She can be reached at mramm@registermedia.com, at (319) 339-7354 or on Twitter at @Michaela_Ramm.
About the Iowa Poll
The Iowa Poll, conducted Sept. 8-11, 2024, for The Des Moines Register and Mediacom by Selzer & Co. of Des Moines, is based on telephone interviews with 811 Iowans ages 18 or older. Interviewers with Quantel Research contacted households with randomly selected landline and cell phone numbers supplied by Dynata. Interviews were administered in English. Responses were adjusted by age, sex and congressional district to reflect the general population based on recent American Community Survey estimates.
Questions based on the sample of 811 Iowa adults have a maximum margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points. This means that if this survey were repeated using the same questions and the same methodology, 19 times out of 20, the findings would not vary from the true population value by more than plus or minus 3.4 percentage points. Results based on smaller samples of respondents—such as by gender or age—have a larger margin of error.
Republishing the copyright Iowa Poll without credit and, on digital platforms, links to originating content on The Des Moines Register and Mediacom is prohibited.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa Poll: Most Iowans back legal abortion, oppose Iowa’s 6-week ban
