Iowa Supreme Court rules against abortion protections

by Jared Gans - 06/17/22 11:41 AM ET

A woman holds a sign saying “stop abortion now,” at a protest outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on May 5, 2022, left, and another woman holds a sign during a news conference for reproductive rights in response to the leaked draft of the Supreme Court’s opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade, in West Hollywood, Calif., on March 3, 2022. For families divided along red house-blue house lines, summer’s slate of reunions, group trips and weddings poses another exhausting round of navigating divides. The season opens at a time of conflict fatigue. Pandemic restrictions have melted away but gun control, the fight for reproductive rights, the Jan. 6 insurrection hearings, the bite of high inflation and a range of other issues prevail. (AP Photo)

The Iowa Supreme Court issued a ruling Friday that abortion is not protected in the state constitution, overturning a ruling from four years ago as federal abortion rights appear highly endangered.

The ruling reverses a lower court move that blocked a law establishing a 24-hour waiting period before a person can get an abortion.

The decision comes as the U.S. Supreme Court appears poised to overturn its ruling in Roe v. Wade, which established the right to an abortion on a national level, after a leaked draft opinion showed a majority of the justices favored reversing the landmark decision.

Iowa had previously been one of several states whose highest courts had ruled their state constitutions protected abortion rights. State supreme courts have issued such rulings in Kansas in 2019, Montana in 1999, Alaska in 1997 and Florida in 1989.

Many Democratic-led states, such as California and Illinois, have explicitly codified and expanded abortion rights.

If the Supreme Court overturns Roe, 26 states are likely to ban abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion rights advocacy group.

A judge who struck down Iowa’s 24-hour waiting period law cited the state Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling that the Iowa Constitution protected abortion rights in his decision, The Associated Press reported.

Planned Parenthood of the Heartland had sued to throw out the 2020 waiting period law on the grounds that it violated the Iowa Constitution’s rule that a piece of legislation only concerns one subject — and violated the Iowa Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling against a 72-hour waiting period, according to the court’s ruling Friday.

The ruling states that although the court is overturning its prior ruling and the idea that abortion is a “fundamental right” in the state constitution, it is not deciding at this time what constitutional standard should replace its former guidance.

The Des Moines Register reported that the composition of the court has shifted significantly since Planned Parenthood’s suit challenging the law. Gov. Kim Reynolds (R), who was named as a defendant in the case, has appointed four of the seven justices currently serving on the court.