Gazette Daily News Briefing, July 12
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, July 12.
Rain is on the way, at least for the first half of the day. According to the National Weather Service there is a 70 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms in the Cedar Rapids area, mainly before 1 p.m. As much as two inches of rain are possible. Outside of the rain, it will start cloudy and then gradually become sunny, with a high near 83 degrees.
Iowa Republican lawmakers passed a near-total abortion ban during a one-day special session Tuesday, making another attempt to enact a law that was blocked by courts in 2018 and remained so after an Iowa Supreme Court decision last month.
Lawmakers voted mostly along party lines after seven hours of debate to ban abortions after cardiac activity is detected in an embryo or fetus, with some exceptions.
The bill prohibits abortions once a “fetal heartbeat” is detected.
The bill would ban abortions after cardiac activity is detected in an embryo or fetus, with some exceptions. With passage, Iowa would join 10 other states with similar abortion limits.
Abortion rights advocates say such a prohibition would end 98 percent of the now-legal abortions in Iowa. They argued during lengthy public hearings the bill went against the will of Iowans and would strip women of their bodily autonomy.
The bill includes exceptions for pregnancies that are the result of rape in cases reported within 45 days, and incest in cases reported within 140 days. It also includes exceptions for miscarriages, a fetal abnormality that would result in the infant’s death, and for when the mother’s life is threatened.
Planned Parenthood, a reproductive health care system that provides abortions, has said it will challenge any abortion restrictions that come from the special session — teeing up what’s sure to be another legal battle that could take a year or more to resolve. That expected legal challenge could center on the level of legal scrutiny that should be applied by the courts to abortion restrictions.
Multiple reports of potential carbon monoxide gas exposure at a Cedar Rapids Motel 6 over the weekend have been attributed to two different sources — a natural gas leak and a clogged lint trap in the motel’s laundry room.
The last issue was resolved and motel guests were allowed back in the building by 3:15 p.m. Saturday, according to Mike Battien, the Cedar Rapids Public Safety communications specialist.
The first call ended after Mid-American Energy crews determined the gas was coming from a natural gas leak, which they stopped up, according to Battien.
When first responders were called the second time, firefighters performed a room-by-room search to make sure all residents were evacuated safely out of the building. Other firefighters searched for the source of the leak and ventilated the building.
A clogged lint trap was discovered in a dryer in the building’s laundry room, which was blocking carbon monoxide produced by the machine from leaving through the exhaust pipe and instead was leaking into the laundry room.
