The so-called “fetal heartbeat bill,” House File 732, is nearly identical to a 2018 law that the Iowa Supreme Court found unconstitutional and blocked from taking effect, according to the Iowa Capital Dispatch. The bill bans most abortions as soon as any indication of embryonic cardiac activity can be detected through an ultrasound — which can happen as early as six weeks after fertilization.

“Just as soon as the first cardiac cells form and start to flutter,” Sarah SmallCarter, Webster County Democratic Party chair, told The Messenger — terminating the pregnancy is illegal, with a few exceptions laid out in the law.

Those exceptions written into the bill — for cases of rape, incest and a medical emergency when the mother’s life is in jeopardy — are actually a gray area, she said.

“Supporters of this bill claim it grants exceptions for the life of the mother in cases like ectopic pregnancy or others, but what it doesn’t do is define what that looks like,” SmallCarter said. “So how close to death does a woman have to be before her life matters?”

The bill cites two similar but slightly different definitions for “medical emergency.”

According to the text of the bill, other exceptions include pregnancies that are a result of rape or incest — but only if the incidents have been reported to law enforcement or a private or public health agency, including a family physician. In the bill, a rape must be reported within 45 days of the incident, and incest must be reported within 140 days of the incident.

“If you look at CDC data, there are 3 million U.S. women who will experience a rape that results in pregnancy in their lifetimes — three million,” said Ryan Melton, of Nevada. “We all know how notoriously underreported sexual assault is — a lot of victims are obviously and understandably afraid to report. So the fact that the Republicans are touting these exceptions when they know full well that those exceptions practically mean a whole lot of nothing, it’s shameful.”

Melton, a Democrat, unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Hull, in the Fourth Congressional District in 2022 and recently announced his campaign to run for the seat again in 2024.

While the bill doesn’t give any specific time-frame, SmallCarter said, it is still a “de facto” six week abortion ban.

SmallCarter said it was “unusual” that the governor recalled the legislature to Des Moines for a one-day special session to push through this legislation, months after the end of the regular legislative session.

“It wouldn’t be a reach to call it cruel as well,” she said.

While SmallCarter is the local Democratic leader, that wasn’t the hat she chose to wear on Friday.

“I’m here more today as myself than any official capacity, because my abortions have saved my life,” she said. “I would not be here today if it weren’t for abortion care services that were absolutely needed. And my daughter wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for those services because I wouldn’t be able to be here to take care of her.”

Amber Rouse, of Fort Dodge, decided to come to the protest because she feels that this bill “does nothing but harm Iowans.”

“And I think it’s important to stand up when a bill does this much harm,” she said.

Rouse said she’s also concerned because Iowa has the fewest OB/GYN specialists per capita nationwide, according to the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

“This is not going to help that situation and I fear it’s going to cost women their lives,” she said.

Julie Petersen, of Gowrie, came to the protest with her husband because she worries the future for her daughters and granddaughters is “bleak.”

“I want our society to recognize that we all have rights,” she said. “We’ve all been talking about book-banning, people trying to tell us what books we can read, trying to tell us what we can do with our bodies. There’s just too many people that are trying to control what we do. We all have our own lives and our own brains and we don’t need other people telling us what to do.”

SmallCarter said protesting this bill is important to her because it infringes on bodily autonomy.

“Right now in the state of Iowa, trash has more rights than women, corpses have more rights than women,” she said. “Because trash is protected against search and seizure and corpses are protected against having organs removed without their consent, but women are forced to carry pregnancies against their will.”

This law is going to cost women their lives in many ways, SmallCarter said.

“Women are going to be faced with unplanned pregnancies that are dangerous, that can be life-threatening, but also that put them in economic positions that derail their entire lives — that force them to drop out of college, that force them to drop out of high school,” she said. “There are going to be women that have pregnancies that force them to stay in abusive relationships. Pregnancy is too complicated to legislate, and when we impose restrictions like this on women, we are making them second-class citizens.”

Because of this new law — which went into effect Friday afternoon upon Reyonlds signing it — women will have to leave the state to receive abortion care, SmallCarter said. And many women will need help to do so, she said.

“There is a wonderful nonprofit, the Iowa Abortion Access Fund, and they provide direct funding to women needing abortions,” she said.

SmallCarter said she wasn’t fazed by the small turnout of the protest as it was held at 9 a.m. on a work day.

“You know, in the BIble, it says ‘Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, you know I am with thee,'” she said. “I kind of feel the same thing about when you get together as a community. When we get together, no matter how many people are there, we build community.”