Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) said on Friday that she planned to sign a measure that would ban abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, setting up the strictest limitations on abortion in the U.S.
In a statement, Reynolds said she would sign the bill in her formal office in the Iowa state capitol.
The legislation is certain to prompt legal battles. Shortly after Reynolds’s office announced the governor’s intent to sign the so-called heartbeat bill, Planned Parenthood of the Heartland said that it would file a lawsuit seeking to block the bill.
“We will challenge this law with absolutely everything we have on behalf of our patients because Iowa will not go back.”
The measure would require women seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound before the procedure, in order to detect whether the fetus has a heartbeat. Iowa’s legislature passed the measure this week.
