Iowa’s high court rejected Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds’ request to overturn a draconian ban on the majority of abortions on Friday, preventing the conservative state from joining others that have severely restricted access to the operation.
It has been almost a year after the same court and the U.S. Supreme Court decided that women do not have a fundamental constitutional right to abortion. This decision to uphold a district court decision from 2019 that halted the statute.
The stalled legislation outlaws abortions whenever heart activity is found, typically at six weeks of pregnancy and before many women are aware that they are expecting.
Reynolds and lawmakers are free to pass a new bill that looks the same even as the state’s supreme court continues to reject it. The judgement on Friday was mostly technical; it was too late to challenge the 2019 decision in 2022.
In Iowa, abortions are still permitted up to 20 weeks of pregnancy.
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Kim Reynolds, the Republican governor of Iowa, delivers her inauguration speech on January 13, 2023 in Des Moines, Iowa. On June 16, 2023, an Iowa court decision declined to overturn a stringent abortion restriction. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)Since the U.S. Supreme Court removed women’s constitutional right to abortion by rejecting Roe v. Wade and giving state governments control over the matter one year ago, most Republican-led states have significantly restricted access to abortion.
Despite state and federal court rulings at the time, like as Roe, supporting a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion, Reynolds nonetheless signed the 2018 law. The next year, a state judge invalidated the law when Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit. Reynolds did not thereafter file an appeal against the judgement.
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In a different case, the Iowa Supreme Court voted to overturn a ruling that the state constitution upholds a basic right to abortion last year. A week after Roe was overruled, Reynolds tried to have the 2019 ruling overturned.
Reynolds filed an appeal to the state Supreme Court, which is now far more conservative than it was when the law was first approved, after a state judge decided last year that she had the jurisdiction to do so. Five of the seven judges of the court were chosen by Reynolds.
Despite being referred to as a “foetal heartbeat” statute, the regulation is difficult to apply to medical practise. The embryo is not yet a foetus and does not have a heart at the time when cutting-edge technology can identify the first visible flutter. A foetus is the word used for an embryo eight weeks following fertilisation.
The Iowa legislation includes exemptions for foetal abnormality, life-threatening dangers to the mother, rape, and incest.
