Iowa passes trailblazing pro-life bill

The Iowa legislature approved a bill early Wednesday that would protect babies from abortion once their heartbeat can be heard, usually around six weeks of gestation. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, has indicated she might sign the bill, giving her state the strongest pro-life law in the country. “Governor Reynolds is 100 percent pro-life and will never stop fighting for the unborn,” spokeswoman Brenna Smith said in an email. Republican lawmakers acknowledged and even welcomed the near certainty that pro-abortion groups would challenge the measure in court once it became law. State Sen. Jake Chapman, from Adel, Iowa, said he would “love for the United States Supreme Court to look at this bill and have this as a vehicle to overturn Roe v. Wade,” the 1973 decision that legalized abortions of babies who could not survive outside the womb.