This is a developing story that will be updated.
The Iowa Supreme Court has ruled a law that bans abortion as early as six weeks of pregnancy can go into effect.
Does this mean abortion is illegal in Iowa?
It will take the law at least 21 days to go into effect, as it will need to go back down to the district court for a final decision, according to the ACLU of Iowa. Until then, abortions will remain legal in Iowa up to 20 weeks of pregnancy.
In a 4 to 3 decision, the Iowa Supreme Court overturned a lower court's ruling, which issued a temporary injunction blocking the law into effect.
The law bans abortion when a “fetal heartbeat” or cardiac activity is detected, which can be as early as six weeks of pregnancy. That is before many people know they’re pregnant. It effectively bans most procedures in Iowa. It does offer exceptions for rape or incest.
The majority opinion written by Justice Matthew McDermott stated that the district court issued the temporary injunction incorrectly using the "undue burden" test, which is the legal basis that Planned Parenthood had argued abortion laws are subjected to under the state constitution.
Instead, McDermott determined the "rational basis" analysis should be applied to Iowa's abortion laws following the 2022 state Supreme Court ruling that determined there is no "fundamental right" to abortion under the Iowa Constitution.
According to the ruling, the "undue burden test" finds an abortion regulation is unconstitutional if “its purpose or effect is to place a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion before."
While it said under "rational basis" analysis, an abortion law is constitutional if it is a"reasonable fit between the government interest and the means utilized to advance that interest.”
In a her dissent, Chief Justice Susan Christensen wrote the majority opinion "strips Iowa women of their bodily autonomy."
"The majority’s rigid approach relies heavily on the male-dominated history and traditions of the 1800s, all the while ignoring how far women’s rights have come since the Civil War era," she wrote.
Reactions to the ruling
Iowa Republicans and anti-abortion advocates applauded the decision saying it protects the unborn. Maggie DeWitte, executive director of the anti-abortion rights group Pulse Life Advocates, called it a "monumental win, for Iowa women, for Iowa families, for babies."
Grant Gerlock
/
Iowa Public Radio
"A baby is a unique and distinct person from its mother, and it deserves protection under our law," DeWitte told reporters in the Iowa Capitol rotunda shortly after the decision was announced.
DeWitte said enacting the law now upheld by the Iowa Supreme Court has been a goal for abortion rights opponents for decades.
"I have been involved in pro-life for over 25 years in Iowa, and to think now that we will finally have protection for children is really hard to put into words," DeWitte said. "We are protecting babies. We're protecting women from the harm that abortion causes them."
Emily Boevers, an OB/GYN who is part of Iowans for Health Liberty, a group that supports abortion rights, said she's deeply disappointed in the decision.
Grant Gerlock
/
Iowa Public Radio
"This is a matter of individuals in Iowa being able to make their own medical decisions without the presence of our governor, our legislature and our courts in the exam room with them," Boevers said.
Boevers said the law and state rules give doctors limited guidance on when an abortion is allowed in a medical emergency. She said it puts the lives of women, and livelihoods of physicians, at risk.
"It's devastating to think about when women come and they are experiencing life-threatening, life-changing complications of pregnancy," Boevers said. "I will tell those patients that they can stay in Iowa and become more sick, potentially carry a non-viable pregnancy and then watch their infant suffer, or they can travel out of state to get proper standard of care medicine."
Republican lawmakers
In a statement, Gov. Kim Reynolds praised the court's decision, saying she is "deeply committed to supporting women in planning for motherhood, and promoting fatherhood and its importance in parenting."
“There is no right more sacred than life, and nothing more worthy of our strongest defense than the innocent unborn. Iowa voters have spoken clearly through their elected representatives, both in 2018 when the original heartbeat bill was passed and signed into law, and again in 2023 when it passed by an even larger margin. I’m glad that the Iowa Supreme Court has upheld the will of the people of Iowa," Reynolds said.
Attorney General Brenna Bird called the ruling a "landmark victory."
"Today’s supreme court decision to uphold Iowa’s heartbeat law sends a loud and clear message: Iowa stands for life. As Attorney General, I have been so grateful to defend Iowa’s heartbeat law and protect the unborn," Bird said.
Democratic lawmakers
In a statement, Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart condemned the ruling, saying "Iowa women have been stripped of reproductive rights that they have maintained for more than 50 years."
"It's obvious Kim Reynolds and Iowa Republicans do not trust women to make their own decisions regarding their own medical care or for doctors to use their best judgment while treating their patients," Hart said. "Republicans went too far with this abortion ban, and Iowa voters will hold them accountable this November."
Iowa Senate Democratic Leader Pam Jochum responded to the decision in a statement issued Friday morning.
Jochum called Friday “a tragic day in Iowa history.”
“Senate Democrats stand with the majority of Iowans who support safe and legal access to abortion. This despicable and dangerous ruling cannot be the last word on reproductive rights and personal freedom in Iowa,” Jochum said.
In a statement, Iowa House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst said Iowa Republicans went too far.
“Everyone deserves the right to make their own health care decisions,” Konfrst said. “Politicians and judges have no place interfering in someone else’s decisions about when to start a family.”
Abortion rights groups
Planned Parenthood North Central States President and CEO Ruth Richardson said they will not stop fighting “extreme abortion bans.”
“We have spent months planning for the possibility of this new reality, putting in place patient navigators,” she said. “Every person deserves to have the full range of sexual and reproductive health care they need, including abortion, no matter their ZIP code.”
Francine Thompson, executive director of the Emma Goldman Clinic said Friday’s ruling will affect generations of Iowans.
“It will have devastating impacts on already poor health outcomes in Iowa and force people into pregnancy,” Thompson said.
The Iowa Abortion Access Fund said in a statement that the ruling is “undemocratic,” pointing to the 2022 Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll where 60% of Iowans said abortion should be legal in most or all cases.
IAAF Development and Outreach Director Leah Vanden Bosch called the opinion a “violation of human rights.”
“This ban will harm marginalized communities and puts the lives of all pregnant people at risk. We know a ban will not stop the need for abortions,” Vanden Bosch said.
The Iowa Board of Medicine, which is the sole authority to enforce the ban, finalized its administrative rules for the law earlier this year.
The Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has flagged the term “fetal heartbeat” as misleading, saying the activity the law is referring to is actually “embryonic cardiac activity.” It says the sound that can be detected by advanced ultrasound technology is electronic pulses during the embryonic stage that is well before the chambers of the heart are developed.
Madeleine King
/
Iowa Public Radio
How many people in Iowa seek abortions?
About 4,200 abortions were performed in Iowa last year, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit that supports abortion rights.
It estimated 940 Iowans traveled out of state to Minnesota, Nebraska and Illinois to get an abortion while an estimated 270 Nebraskans traveled to Iowa for an abortion in 2023.
Abortions increased 20% in Iowa between 2019 and 2023, according to the New York Times.
The Iowa Abortion Access Fund reports requests for financial support for abortions has increased 27% since 2021.
How did we get here?
Lawmakers passed the current abortion ban during a one-day special session called by Gov. Kim Reynolds in July 2023.
This came just weeks after the state Supreme Court permanently blocked a nearly identical law passed in 2018, but left the decision open enough for lawmakers to test another similar ban under the state constitution.
That law, which banned abortion after a “fetal heartbeat” is detected, was initially blocked by a district court in 2018 shortly after an Iowa Supreme Court ruling added heightened protections to abortion under the state constitution, determining it protects a fundamental right to abortion, subjected to strict scrutiny.
Following that ruling, Reynolds appointed four new justices to the court: Christopher McDonald, Dana Oxley, Matthew McDermott and David May. Republican governors have appointed all justices.
This set the scene for the Iowa Supreme Court’s 2022 decision, which reversed its 2018 ruling and found the right to abortion is not subject to strict scrutiny under the state constitution. It also allowed a 24-hour waiting period for those seeking abortions to go into effect.
The state’s 2022 ruling came out a week before the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision, overturning the nationwide right to abortion.
Madeleine King
Following the state Supreme Court’s ruling, Reynolds asked the court to reinstate the 2018 “fetal heartbeat” ban under the state’s new standard for abortion laws.
Her request ultimately failed in June 2023 when the Iowa Supreme Court deadlocked in a 3-3 decision, defaulting back to a lower court’s ruling, and permanently blocking the law. Justice Oxley recused herself from the case for an unspecified conflict of interest.
However, the justices wrote they would reconsider Iowa’s legal test for abortion restrictions if lawmakers passed a new law.
Less than a month later, Reynolds called a special session where lawmakers passed the current law, which has been upheld by the court.
IPR reporters Katarina Sostaric and Grant Gerlock contributed to this story.
