Iowa Could Outlaw Abortion As Governor Asks Court To Let 6-Week Ban Take Effect

Topline

Iowa might develop into the newest state to ban abortions after six weeks of being pregnant, as Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) requested a state court docket Thursday to let the state’s abortion ban take impact after it was blocked in 2018.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds speaks on October 31, 2020 in Davenport, Iowa.

Getty Pictures

Key Details

Reynolds filed a motion in state district court docket asking a choose to raise an injunction that blocked Iowa’s six-week ban, which was enacted in 2018 however then struck down in court docket, after the governor beforehand vowed in June that she would accomplish that.

Abortion is now authorized in Iowa as much as 20 weeks right into a being pregnant, and the Iowa Supreme Court docket dominated in 2018 that abortion rights are protected beneath the state Structure.

The Iowa Supreme Court docket then overturned its precedent in June after Reynolds appointed new justices to the court docket and it turned extra conservative, ruling abortion rights usually are not protected in a case regarding a compulsory 24-hour ready interval regulation that’s now been allowed to take impact.

For the reason that six-week ban was beforehand blocked due to the state court docket’s precedent (together with federal abortion protections by way of Roe v. Wade, additionally now overturned), Reynolds argued it ought to now be allowed to take impact.

The six-week ban would permit exceptions within the case of rape, incest, fetal abnormalities and medical emergencies.

Deliberate Parenthood of North Central States, one of many events that introduced the preliminary lawsuit towards the ban, has not but responded to a request for remark.

Essential Quote

Following the rulings by the Iowa Supreme Court docket and U.S. Supreme Court docket overturning precedents on abortion rights, “no proper to an abortion exists beneath the state or federal structure,” Reynolds’ attorneys argued of their court docket submitting. “This Court docket thus has an obligation to vacate its injunction so Iowa can implement its validly enacted regulation.”

Large Quantity

60%. That’s the share of Iowans who need abortion to be authorized in all or most instances, in accordance with a Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa poll performed in July, which the Register notes marks an all-time excessive.

Key Background

Reynolds’ request comes after courts have already allowed six-week abortion bans that had been beforehand blocked in Georgia, Ohio and South Carolina to take impact following the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. It additionally marks the newest in a slew of abortion lawsuits to now be taking part in out in state court docket, as abortion rights advocates have filed lawsuits in over a dozen states asking for abortion bans to be struck down beneath state regulation. Earlier than the Iowa Supreme Court docket’s ruling in June, the state was considered one of six by which state courts had explicitly protected abortion rights, together with Alaska, Florida, Kansas, Minnesota and Montana. Republicans in a few of these states at the moment are hoping their state justices will observe Iowa’s lead, with a authorized battle now taking part in out in Florida over the state’s 15-week abortion ban and Montana GOP politicians calling for the precedent in that state to be overturned.