The Iowa Supreme Court has ruled the law that bans most abortions after the sixth week of a pregnancy may take effect.
Four of the justices joined the majority ruling that removed the injunction that had blocked enforcement of the law, which was passed last July. Three justices opposed the move. The majority ruling says there’s no fundamental right to an abortion in Iowa’s Constitution. The ruling says the court’s “review of the historical record” shows the right to an abortion is “is not rooted at all in our state’s history and tradition.”
Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Susan Christiansen wrote a dissent, saying the four justices who joined the majority decision “relied heavily on the male-dominated history and traditions of the 1800s.” Christiansen wrote that the four justices had ignored “how far women’s rights have come since the Civil War era.”
Governor Reynolds, in a written statement, praised the decision, saying “nothing is more worthy of the strongest defense than the unborn.” Iowa Democratic Party chair Rita Hart said in her written statement that “Republicans went too far with this abortion ban and voters will hold them accountable in November.”
Maggie DeWitte, executive director of Pulse Life Advocates, was the emcee for last Saturday’s statehouse rally to mark the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v Wade and set the new legal standard on which today’s Iowa Supreme Court ruling is based. “Now we can turn the page to a new chapter of defending life right here in our own state of Iowa,” she said, to applause.
DeWitte told the crowd at the “March for Life” event that “slow and steady wins the race” and their task now is to convince more Iowans abortion isn’t the answer.
“We are exposing the extremism of the other side and speaking with moral confidence and it’s working. Sixty-six percent of Americans support placing legal limits on abortion,” DeWitte said. “Now, is that enough? No, but it is a step in the right direction.”
DeWitte also made it clear the six week abortion ban is not the group’s end goal. “None of us in the pro-life movement are going to stop until we have eliminated abortion in the state of Iowa,” she said.
Mazie Stilwell of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Iowa spoke during an online event last night. “This case really does determine Iowans’ ability to control their own bodies, their own futures, their entire lives,” Stilwell said, “and so it’s hard to overstate how much is at stake in this ruling.”
Stilwell said few people know they’re pregnant at six weeks. “Taking an element of control over people’s lives, putting us in a position where whether it be politicians or judges are having more control over our bodies and our lives than we do,” Stilwell said, “and that’s a really scary moment to be in and we know that it’s not right.”
Stilwell cited polling which shows a majority of Iowans oppose the six week abortion ban. “It’s really nothing more than an unconstitutional power grab by those who are just obsessed with controlling us and making those deeply personal medical decisions for us,” Stilwell said.
After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022, Governor Reynolds asked the Iowa Supreme Court to let a similar law she signed in 2018 take effect. A year ago, the Iowa Supreme Court deadlocked on the issue, so Reynolds called for a special legislative session last July to pass the same law again. It was immediately challenged in court.
Iowa is among a dozen states that have a six week abortion ban. Iowa’s law does include exceptions in cases of rape, incest, fetal abnormality or to save the life of the mother. The law says women cannot be prosecuted for seeking or obtaining an abortion, but it will be up to the Board of Medicine to sanction Iowa doctors accused of violating th law. The Iowa Board of Medicine approved general guidelines in February for when exceptions would be allowed. For instance, doctors must sign a certification that documents the reasons for abortions in cases of rape, incest or when fetal abnormalities are cited. Iowans for Health Liberty, a group representing some Iowa doctors, has said the rules are too vague when it and will force doctors to withhold care that until a woman’s health declines enough for treatment.
