Iowa Bill Banning the Sale or Research on ‘Unborn Infant’ Remains (HF 2140)

HF 2140 would prohibit the buying or selling of or experimentation on an “unborn infant” or the bodily remains resulting from an abortion.

The bill prohibits a person from:

• experimenting upon an “unborn infant” intended to be aborted unless the experimentation is therapeutic to the “unborn infant”;
• performing or offering to perform an abortion if the justification or reason for the abortion is that the bodily remains may be used for animal or human research, experimentation, or transplantation;
• knowingly selling, transferring, distributing, giving away, accepting, using, or attempting to use an “unborn infant” or the bodily remains resulting from an abortion; or
• aiding or abetting any of these prohibited actions.

A person who knowingly violates this provision would be guilty of a class “C” felony punishable by confinement of up to 1o years and a fine of anywhere between $1,000 and $10,000. An entity or program that is found to have violated this provision may lose state funding,

The bill provides that a fetal death certificate is to be filed for all fetal deaths occurring at the stage of an “unborn infant’s” development at which bodily remains are evident, not only for those after a gestation period of 20 completed weeks or greater, or for a dead unborn infant with a weight of 350 grams or more.

The bill also establishes a process for the release to a mother or her authorized representative of fetal bodily remains following a fetal death, or in the alternative, provides for the disposition of fetal bodily remains by the funeral director, the individual in charge of the institution where the bodily remains were extracted, or by a person assuming responsibility for the bodily remains.

HF 2140 makes conforming changes in Code Chapter 144 to replace the term “fetus” with the term “unborn infant” and defines “unborn infant” as the offspring of a human being from conception until birth.

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