DES MOINES, Iowa — The Iowa Supreme Court split 3-3 on Gov. Kim Reynolds' six-week abortion bill Friday, affirming a lower court's 2019 ruling that maintains access to abortions up until the 20-week mark in pregnancy.
Justices Susan Christensen, Thomas Waterman and Edward Mansfield ruled to let the district court's ruling stand, while Christopher McDonald, Matthew McDermott and David May wanted to overturn the district's ruling in favor of the six-week ban.
Justice Dana Oxley set the stage for the split when she recused herself from the case.
In a separate case, the Iowa Supreme Court decided last year to reverse an opinion saying the state’s constitution affirms a fundamental right to abortion. Roe was overturned a week later and Reynolds sought to dissolve the 2019 decision.
Reynolds issued a statement Friday following the ruling:
"To say that today’s lack of action by the Iowa Supreme Court is a disappointment is an understatement. Not only does it disregard Iowa voters who elected representatives willing to stand up for the rights of unborn children, but it has sided with a single judge in a single county who struck down Iowa’s legislation based on principles that now have been flat-out rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court."
A state judge ruled last year that she had no authority to do so and Reynolds appealed to the state's Supreme Court, which is now far more conservative than when the law was first passed. Reynolds appointed five of the court’s seven members.
Typically, justices do not write opinions for cases that split 3-3, with the last split vote opinions stemming from State v. Effler, which happened nearly 15 years ago. Since then, eighteen cases have divided the court evenly, and none have warranted opinions.
Below are some excerpts from the justices' opinions:
Waterman highlighted the bill's tumultuous history in legislature.
"The State appealed, and now asks our court to do something that has never happened in Iowa history: to simultaneously bypass the legislature and change the law, to adopt rational basis review, and then to dissolve an injunction to put a statute into effect for the first time in the same case in which that very enactment was declared unconstitutional years earlier."
McDonald, who aimed to rule in favor of the six-week ban, wrote:
"The dispute over the regulation of abortion in Iowa has many dimensions— cultural, political, medical, practical, moral, ethical, and legal. The judicial department’s authority begins and ends with the legal dimension."
McDermott shared:
"My three colleagues who decline to grant the State’s writ of certiorari begin their opinion with the declaration, 'This case is extraordinary,' and then proceed to explain why this case is so unextraordinary that we shouldn’t bother to exercise our discretion to decide it."
To read the entire ruling, click here.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.