State court rejects Gov. Reynolds’ request to reinstate abortion restriction

DES MOINES — A fight over enacting a ban on abortions in Iowa once a fetus’ heartbeat can be detected is on its way to the Iowa Supreme Court.

A District Court judge on Monday rejected Gov. Kim Reynolds’ request to reinstate a blocked law that would ban abortions once a fetus’ heartbeat can be detected. Reynolds immediately announced her intention to appeal to the Iowa Supreme Court.

For the time being, abortion in Iowa remains legal until 20 weeks of pregnancy.

After a U.S. Supreme Court ruling earlier this year essentially ended a pregnant person’s right to an abortion at the federal level and sent the issue of abortion regulations to the states, Reynolds asked the state courts to reinstate the 2018 so-called “fetal heartbeat” law, which at the time was ruled unconstitutional.

On Monday, District Court Judge Celene Gogerty ruled the District Court does not have the authority to dissolve the permanent injunction that was placed on the law.

“It has not been established that the court has any authority, inherent or based on the rules of civil procedure, which allows it to retain jurisdiction in order to dissolve the permanent injunction in this case,” Gogerty’s decision reads.

Gogerty went on to write, “Additionally, even if the court had jurisdiction to dissolve the permanent injunction, the State has failed to show that there has been a substantial change in the law under the Iowa Constitution that would change the circumstances.”

Shortly after the ruling was published, Reynolds’ office announced an appeal.

“I’m very disappointed in the ruling filed today by the District Court, but regardless of the outcome, this case was always going to the Iowa Supreme Court,” Reynolds said in a statement. “As the Iowa and U.S. Supreme Courts have made clear, there is no fundamental right to an abortion. The decision of the people’s representatives to protect life should be honored, and I believe the court will ultimately do so.”

However, Sarah Trone Garriott, a state senator from West Des Moines and the top Democrat on the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, praised the district judge’s ruling.

“An impartial judge has once again blocked Republican politicians’ extreme attack on Iowans’ health and freedom,” Trone Garriott said in a statement. “While this is a positive development that will preserve Iowans’ basic rights in the near term, we all know where this is headed: Republicans want to ban abortion — at six weeks or altogether if they can. Gov. Reynolds and Iowa Republicans are trying to force government control over this deeply personal and private decision, putting lives at risk. That was true before today’s ruling and remains true now.”

Supporters of fetal heartbeat laws say they ban abortions at roughly six weeks of pregnancy. However, medical experts — including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists — say a fetus’ heartbeat cannot be detected until closer to 10 weeks of pregnancy, and that what an ultrasound detects at six weeks is not a heartbeat but electrical pulses.

There are 13 states with laws that ban abortions at either six weeks or fewer, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a national nonprofit organization that monitors states’ abortion laws and advocates for access to reproductive health care.

The Iowa Supreme Court is entirely comprised of Republican appointees, and five of the seven justices were appointed by Reynolds.

In July — shortly before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade abortion decision — the Iowa Supreme Court overturned its own ruling on abortion, concluding that a court made up of less conservative justices wrongly decided abortion is among the fundamental privacy rights guaranteed by the Iowa Constitution.

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