DES MOINES, Iowa — The Iowa Supreme Court has reversed a temporary injunction placed on a 2023 law that bans most abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, meaning the law can now take effect.
In a 4-3 decision posted Friday, justices wrote that, "Our holding today—applying rational basis as the constitutional test—undermines the rationale for the district court’s ruling. Under the rational basis test, Planned Parenthood cannot show a likelihood of success on the merits of its substantive due process challenge."
The instructions to the lower court will be formally sent in 21 days and, for now, so abortion remains legal in Iowa up to 20 weeks of pregnancy. It is unclear how long the district court would take to act after that point.
Justice Matthew McDermott wrote the majority opinion and was joined by Justices Christopher McDonald, Dana Oxley and David May.
"Our holding today—applying rational basis as the constitutional test—undermines the rationale for the district court’s ruling," McDermott writes. "Under the rational basis test, Planned Parenthood cannot show a likelihood of success on the merits of its substantive due process challenge. We thus hold that Planned Parenthood is not entitled to a temporary injunction blocking enforcement of the fetal heartbeat statute."
The dissenting opinion was written by Chief Justice Susan Christensen and joined by Justices Edward Mansfield and Thomas Waterman.
"Abortion is time-sensitive, essential healthcare. Banning abortion at any stage in pregnancy denies the person a fundamental right to control their own body, and healthcare decisions," Ruth Richardson, CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States, said Friday. "
Representing the state during oral arguments in April, attorney Eric Wessan said that the bench already indicated what’s appropriate in this case when they ruled that there’s no “fundamental right” to abortion in the state constitution.
“This court has never before recognized a quasi-fundamental or a fundamental-ish right,” he said.
But Peter Im, an attorney for Planned Parenthood, told the justices there are core constitutional rights at stake that merit the court’s consideration of whether there is too heavy a burden on people seeking abortion access.
“It is emphatically this court’s role and duty to say how the Iowa Constitution protects individual rights, how it protects bodily autonomy, how it protects Iowans’ rights to exercise dominion over their own bodies,” he said.
"It's been a long time coming, that we here in Iowa have been waiting for this ruling," Maggie DeWitte of Pulse Life Advocates told Local 5. "This ruling reflects the will of the people. And we are a pro-life state, a pro-family state. And I think that the people in Iowa want to see life protected. And that's what they are hoping to continue to see as we move forward."
Gov. Kim Reynolds issued a statement following the court's ruling:
“There is no right more sacred than life, and nothing more worthy of our strongest defense than the innocent unborn. Iowa voters have spoken clearly through their elected representatives, both in 2018 when the original heartbeat bill was passed and signed into law, and again in 2023 when it passed by an even larger margin. I’m glad that the Iowa Supreme Court has upheld the will of the people of Iowa.
“As the heartbeat bill finally becomes law, we are deeply committed to supporting women in planning for motherhood, and promoting fatherhood and its importance in parenting. We will continue to develop policies that encourage strong families, which includes promoting adoption and protecting in vitro fertilization (IVF). Families are the cornerstone of society, and it’s what will keep the foundation of our state and country strong for generations to come.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.