by A group of reproductive rights groups said Wednesday it had filed a lawsuit to stop Iowa’s recently passed six-week abortion ban from going into effect.
Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, the Iowa American Civil Liberties Union and the Emma Goldman Clinic, a women’s health care facility in Iowa City, filed the legal challenge in state court Wednesday afternoon, less than 12 hours after the Republican-controlled Legislature passed the ban
The lawsuit, filed in the Iowa District Court for Polk County, seeks a temporary injunction. If granted, the law would be blocked while the legal challenge unfolds in the court system.
In a phone call with reporters, the groups filing the lawsuit said the initial hearing in the case was scheduled for Friday at 1:30 p.m. local time.
If not blocked by the court, the law would take effect immediately after Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signs it into law Friday afternoon at a summit hosted by a conservative Christian group, which several 2024 Republican candidates are expected to attend. .
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott are some of the candidates appearing at the conference, called the Family Leadership Summit.
Reynolds’ choice of the location to sign the bill further cements the role the divisive issue will play in presidential politics in the key early voting state.
while you probe in the stateAs well as nationally, it found that most voters support giving women abortion rights, support for stricter abortion restrictions remains popular among conservative evangelical Christians, a key voting bloc in the state’s Republican caucuses. .
If the law were to take effect immediately after Reynolds’ signing, abortion clinics and patients in the state would be in trouble, a result reproductive rights groups cited in their lawsuit announcement.
“If this abortion ban goes into effect, it will place an unacceptable burden on the ability of patients to access essential abortion care, especially those who already face systemic inequities,” said Ruth Richardson, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood North. Central States, in a statement. statement. “Hundreds of Iowans will be affected in just a few weeks. We refuse to stand idly by and will fight every step of the way to block this abortion ban and restore the rights of Iowans.”
The invoice Passed Tuesday night, it would ban abortions in the sixth week of pregnancy. The measure includes exceptions for the life of the mother, miscarriages and fetal abnormalities that a doctor considers “incompatible with life.”
The bill also includes exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape and incest. For those exceptions to apply, the rape must have been reported to law enforcement or a “public or private health agency,” including a family doctor, within 45 days, and the violation must have been reported. incest to any of those officials or entities within a period of 45 days. 140 days
Reproductive rights advocates have said that a six-week ban amounts to a total ban on abortion because women don’t even know they are pregnant that soon.
As it currently stands, abortion remains legal in Iowa until the 20th week of pregnancy.
The bill’s passage capped a marathon one-day special legislative session that Reynolds called for what he described as the sole purpose of enacting “pro-life” legislation. He announced the session just weeks after the Iowa Supreme Court issued a ruling allowing the six-week abortion ban that lawmakers enacted in 2018 to remain permanently blocked.
While the latest law already faces the same kinds of legal challenges as the 2018 law, the outcome could be different this time with a full state Supreme Court issuing a decision.
the courts split judgment Last month on that 2018 law was a strictly tailored decision based largely on procedural grounds, meaning it remains possible, if not likely, that a full seven-member court could find legal consensus on a new ban.
One of the court’s seven judges, Dana Oxley, a Reynolds appointee, recused herself because her former law firm represented an abortion clinic that was a plaintiff in the original case.
bianca seward, jillian frankel, Alex Tabet and shaquille brewster contributed.
