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(Iowa) -- A bill that would make abortion a criminal offense is not moving forward in the Iowa Legislature.
“House File 2316 would do something no other major pro‑life group in the country supports, it would put women in jail who have an abortion. It would subject them to Iowa Code 707.2, and they would be charged with first‑degree murder,” said Iowa State Representative Steven Holt, a Republican.
The bill would classify abortion under the same criminal standards used for acts resulting in crimes against a person after live birth. Friday marks the Legislature’s first funnel deadline, when bills that fail to advance out of committee are dropped for the remainder of the session.
“House File 2316 is supported by a group called abortion abolitionists. They are very aggressive in their approach and are upset that I didn’t assign it to a subcommittee. I will not assign any legislation to a subcommittee that would throw women in jail, as this bill proposes,” Holt said.