After a nearly decade-long fight, the Iowa Legislature has passed a Sexual Assault Protective Order bill that will allow sexual assault survivors to petition for civil no-contact orders against their assailant. 

The Iowa Senate voted 94-to-4 in favor of Senate File 401 Wednesday, according to a press release for the Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault (IowaCASA).

The bill now heads to Gov. Terry Branstad’s desk, where he is expected to sign the legislation, according to the release.

Iowa now joins 33 other states and the District of Columbia to allow sexual assault survivors to petition for protective orders against their assailant.

Currently, Iowa only provides civil no-contact orders to survivors if they had some sort of relationship with the assailant. That relationship would then qualify the assault as domestic violence, which current laws provide no-contact orders for.

Iowa law also allows for a no-contact order if the assailant is arrested on charges related to sexual abuse, according to The Des Moines Register.

This new bill takes the provision of a relationship or an arrest out of the equation and allows victims to pursue a no-contact order before an arrest is made. 

“Sexual assault protective orders are crucial for the healing and safety of survivors,” Beth Barnhill, executive director of IowaCASA, said in the release. “This bill, once signed into law, will have a life-changing impact for survivors across the state. We celebrate this victory today alongside survivors, advocates and allies who have been working for the past decade to pass this legislation. Survivors deserve this.”

The legislation, however, has faced some resistance from both the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa and Iowa State Bar Association, which have registered against it, The Register reported.

Daniel Zeno, policy counsel for the ACLU, told The Register that he believes the bill may threaten the civil liberties of the alleged assailant.

“If you have two college students and one alleges the other sexually assaulted him or her and gets a temporary (no-contact) order, the defendant could potentially not be allowed to go to class (because he might come in contact with the alleged victim,)” Zeno said to The Register. “(The defendant’s) rights are restricted until that court hearing happens.”