By Estella Johnson

The 20-week abortion ban is targeted at older women who are more likely to have pregnancies complicated by fetal anomalies. Women who have an amniocentesis to determine the health of the fetus would no longer be able to use the results as the tests can first be done at 17-18 weeks and take two weeks to complete, placing a woman beyond the 20 week deadline. https://choicematters.org/2017/10/06/20-week-abortion…o-big-deal-think/

This article gives a little background on 20-week bans and lists examples of those bans in the country as of September 12th, 2018. https://rewire.news/legislative-tracker/law-topic/20-week-bans/

This article by The Guttmacher Institute talks a bit about the background of abortion rights in this country, highlights current law around the issue.  https://www.guttmacher.org/state-policy/explore/state-policies-later-abortions

This article by the NYT talks about the proposed bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks that recently failed in the US Senate.  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/29/us/politics/senate-abortion-ban-20-weeks.html

By Estella Johnson

In 2013, the North Dakota State Senate approved a bill that would ban abortions if a fetal heartbeat can be detected- something that usually occurs around six weeks into a pregnancy.  This law in theory would ban almost all abortions. Many women do not know until much later in a pregnancy that they are pregnant at all. Under this bill, women seeking abortions would not face criminal charges; however, doctor’s caught performing abortions after a heartbeat is detected could face five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. Pro-choice advocates in North Dakota suspect this bill is an attempt to close the only remaining abortion clinic in the state, which is located in Fargo. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/north-dakota-senate-approves-6-week-abortion-ban/

In 2015 the 8^th circuit court of appeals struck down the North Dakota 6-week abortion ban. According to the court, the ban violated the Supreme Court precedent that makes abortion legal until the fetus is viable outside the womb (usually around 24 weeks).https://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/north-dakota-abortion-ban-120467

In 2016, the Supreme Court decided to not review the case, permanently blocking North Dakota’s fetal heartbeat law.  https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/01/25/464311731/supreme-court-rejects-north-dakota-s-bid-to-save-strict-abortion-law

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds plans to sign a bill to ban abortion after 6 weeks. The ACLU has already stated that it plans to sue if the law gets signed.  https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/iowa-governor-says-shell-sign-6-week-abortion-ban-into-law

An Iowa judge temporarily blocked the 6-week ban from going into effect until a lawsuit brought forth by Planned Parenthood and the Iowa branch of the ACLU is resolved.  https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/390241-judge-temporarily-blocks-iowas-six-week-abortion-ban

By Estella Johnson

This group of articles, in the bulleted posts below, discusses one of the most blatant attacks on a woman’s right to choose: the six-week ban, also known as the heartbeat bill. These bills—which several states have tried to establish as law in the past decade— would make abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected illegal. Detection of a heartbeat can typically occur as early as six weeks. This is so early in a pregnancy that many women do not even realize that they are pregnant. For this reason, these six weeks bans are effectively a ban on all abortions. The articles in this section focus specifically on attempts to implement six week bans in the states of Iowa and North Dakota. Although the North Dakota ban has now been permanently blocked by the courts, the fight to keep abortion legal in Iowa continues.