Many of the laws advanced during the 2026 legislative session take effect Wednesday, including measures restricting access to abortion-inducing medication, increasing the speed limit on two-lane highways and limiting future governors’ powers during public health and disaster emergencies.
July 1, the beginning of the state’s fiscal year, is the default date for new laws to be enacted, unless otherwise specified.
Several measures passed this session went into effect immediately, including laws banning public entities from hosting warrant resolution clinics and shifting some K-12 funding from public to charter schools to follow students. Other new laws have a different start date specified. For example, the 5-cent tax on vapes and alternative nicotine products will go into effect Jan. 1, 2027.
Here’s a look at some of Iowa’s new laws that take effect Wednesday:
Abortion medication: Iowans will need to obtain prescriptions for abortion-inducing medications like mifepristone and misoprostol through in-person appointments beginning Wednesday. This restriction, under House File 2563, will mean patients can no longer obtain these medications through telehealth and mail-order prescription services.
Proponents of the measure said physicians will be able to better identify instances of abuse by requiring in-person appointments, as well as stop “black market” abortion medications from coming into the state. Democrats and health advocates said that characterization of telehealth and mail-order prescriptions was inaccurate, as the medicine still comes from licensed medical providers. Some Republicans also said the in-person requirement will allow for more stringent enforcement of the state’s six-week abortion ban, which bans abortions after cardiac activity is detectable in an embryo.
The measure additionally clarifies the definition of “abortion” to exempt medical treatments related to miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies.
E-Verify, SAVE and other citizenship checks: Though many of the citizenship and work status verification steps codified through Senate File 2218 were already being enforced through by an executive order from Gov. Kim Reynolds in 2025, the law will make these changes permanent. State government entities and state licensing boards are required to use the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database and E-Verify system to verify citizenship and legal status of people seeking state employment and professional and occupational licenses. The governor’s executive order enacting this new requirement and the law that followed came out of the immigration arrest of former Des Moines Public Schools superintendent Ian Roberts, who was granted a license to serve as superintendent in July 2023 by Iowa Board of Educational Examiners.
The new law also directs the BOEE to have applicants for new and renewing educator licenses provide the board proof of their legal U.S. work authorization, and to verify their continued work eligibility every five years to remain licensed. There are several other immigration-related provisions in the law, such as making the act of providing a false Social Security number a crime, and requiring Iowans registering to vote to swear they are a U.S. citizen under penalty of perjury.
You can read the full article at Iowa Capital Dispatch.