Track

Status

Governing provision

No limitation for sexual abuse against a minor — § 802.2(1): “An information or indictment for sexual abuse in the first, second, or third degree committed on or with a person who is under the age of eighteen years may be commenced at any time after the commission of the offense.” § 802.2(2): any other sexual abuse in the first, second or third degree — ten years, or three years from the date the offender is identified by DNA profile, whichever is later. 

No limitation for incest and professional exploitation of a minor — § 802.2A: an information or indictment for incest under § 726.2, or for sexual exploitation by a counselor, therapist, school employee or adult providing training or instruction under § 709.15, committed on or with a person under eighteen, may be commenced at any time. 

No limitation for the wider family of child sexual offenses — § 802.2B: the same “at any time” rule applies where the victim was under eighteen to lascivious acts with a child (§ 709.8), assault with intent to commit sexual abuse (§ 709.11), indecent contact with a child (§ 709.12), lascivious conduct with a minor (§ 709.14), sexual misconduct with a juvenile (§ 709.16(2)), child endangerment (§ 726.6(5), (6) or (7)) and sexual exploitation of a minor (§ 728.12). 

But not for kidnapping — § 802.2C: an information or indictment for kidnapping in the first, second or third degree committed on or with a person under eighteen “shall be found within ten years after the person upon whom the offense is committed attains eighteen years of age”, or within three years of DNA identification, whichever is later. That is a deadline at twenty-eight. 

Why this stays at “partly removed”, and why it is a genuinely close call — see the open questions below. Sections 802.2, 802.2A and 802.2B together sweep almost the whole of Iowa’s child sexual offense law into “at any time”: sexual abuse in all three degrees, incest, exploitation by a counselor or school employee, lascivious acts, indecent contact, lascivious conduct, sexual misconduct with a juvenile, child endangerment and sexual exploitation of a minor. What is left on a clock in the same chapter is § 802.2C kidnapping, at twenty-eight, and any child sexual offense that none of the three sections enumerates.

Iowa Code § 802.2 — Iowa Legislature, official Iowa Code 

Iowa Code § 802.2A — Iowa Legislature, official Iowa Code 

Iowa Code § 802.2B — Iowa Legislature, official Iowa Code 

Iowa Code § 802.2C — Iowa Legislature, official Iowa Code

Five years past majority — § 614.8A(1): “Notwithstanding section 614.8, subsection 2, and the times limited for actions in this chapter, the time to file an action related to sexual abuse or human trafficking that occurred when the injured person was a minor is extended to five years beyond the minor’s attainment of eighteen years of age.” The practical deadline is the survivor’s twenty-third birthday. 

And five years from discovery, in addition — § 614.8A(2): “In addition to the extension of the time provided in subsection 1, an action for damages for injury suffered as a result of sexual abuse or human trafficking that occurred when the injured person was a child, but not discovered until after the injured person is of the age of majority, shall be brought within five years from the time of discovery by the injured party of both the injury and the causal relationship between the injury and the sexual abuse or human trafficking.” 

What the 2026 amendment changed — the section as it stood in the official Iowa Code 2026, before the amendment, read in its entirety: “An action for damages for injury suffered as a result of sexual abuse which occurred when the injured person was a child, but not discovered until after the injured person is of the age of majority, shall be brought within four years from the time of discovery by the injured party of both the injury and the causal relationship between the injury and the sexual abuse.” H.F. 1036 therefore did three things: it added the five-years-past-eighteen limb, which did not exist at all; it lengthened the discovery period from four years to five; and it extended the section to human trafficking as well as sexual abuse. 

That is a substantial reform, and it took effect only weeks before this review. Note also what did not change: there is still no outer cap on the discovery limb, so a survivor who makes the causal connection at fifty has five years from that point. The floor moved from “discovery only” to “age twenty-three or discovery”, which helps survivors who always knew what happened but were not ready to sue.

Iowa Code § 614.8A — Iowa Legislature, official Iowa Code

What it permits — S.F. 2431, § 2(1): notwithstanding § 614.8(2) and § 614.8A, where an individual entitled to commence an action was a child when the right accrued, the action “may be commenced by or on behalf of the injured individual at any time, notwithstanding any then applicable statute of limitation”, if all of the following are true: the injury arises from a sex offense enumerated in § 692A.102, whether or not a criminal complaint was filed or a conviction obtained; the action is barred by § 614.8(2) or § 614.8A; the action is “for purposes of making a claim in a bankruptcy proceeding that was initiated on February 18, 2020”; and the claim is “against the bankruptcy estate of a congressionally chartered organization”. 

Against whom — § 2(2): “An action brought under subsection 1 may only be commenced against an entity seeking bankruptcy protection as provided in subsection 1 and not against any other person or entity.” 

When it ends — § 3: “This Act is repealed December 31, 2026.” § 4: it took effect on enactment. § 5: “This Act applies retroactively to injuries resulting from sex offenses that occurred prior to the effective date of this Act, irrespective of any statute of limitation in effect at the time the offense occurred.” 

The legislature’s own findings are unusual and worth quoting in full, because they are a legislature explaining why it does not want to be read as setting a precedent — § 1: “It is the finding of the general assembly that the following facts and circumstances are conditions precedent to this modification of an existing Iowa statute of limitation: 1. That legislatively created, after-the-fact exceptions to the operation of civil statutes of limitation are, in general, poor public policy. 2. Such exceptions tend to erode the rule of law, respect for the doctrine of equal protection, and due regard for the sanctity of contracts. 3. Notwithstanding such principles, various parties have represented to the general assembly that a defined and discreet group of Iowa sexual abuse victims face a grotesque miscarriage of justice if the operation of sections 614.1 and 614.8 is not suspended for their benefit. 4. These parties have also represented to the general assembly that the circumstances surrounding the lawsuits are unlikely to reoccur, and that the proposed retroactive enlargement of the statute of limitation will not injure any third party who has not already consented to settlement of their interests. 5. But for the unusual and exceptionally rare circumstances represented to be present, an after-the-fact enlargement of a statute of limitation would not be considered. 6. The action taken by the general assembly in this matter is not to be considered or offered in the future as creating a precedent for future legislative action by the general assembly.” 

The window reaches one organization, and the Act shows it the same way Indiana’s does — by describing rather than naming: a congressionally chartered organization, a bankruptcy initiated on 18 February 2020. The Iowa Act is the more revealing of the two: the legislature opened a window while recording, in the statute itself, that it considers windows poor public policy and that this one must not be cited back to it.

Iowa Code § 614.8A — Iowa Legislature, official Iowa Code (the section S.F. 2431 suspends)

no Iowa row.