Iowa Supreme Court to deliver abortion ruling Friday

DES MOINES — The Iowa Supreme Court is poised to deliver an opinion Friday that will reset the legal landscape for abortion restrictions in Iowa.

The court on Thursday announced the four rulings that it will publish Friday morning will include Planned Parenthood of the Heartland v. Gov Kim Reynolds.

The possible outcomes of Friday’s opinion are many, and not as simple as an up-or-down ruling on the law at the heart of the legal challenge: A 2018 law that state courts struck down that would prohibit abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected.

For now, abortion is legal in Iowa until the 20th week of pregnancy. That could change with Friday’s ruling.

Recent history of Iowa abortion laws

In 2017, then-Gov. Terry Branstad, a Republican, signed into law a ban on abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy.

At a bill-signing ceremony, Branstad called it a historic legislative session for anti-abortion policies. However, and perhaps in a signal of how quickly that ground would move, conservative Christian leader Bob Vander Plaats said of the 20-week ban at the time, “the 20-week ban is not the gold standard that we’re looking for. We’re still looking for life at conception or a trigger bill or a heartbeat bill.”

2018 ‘fetal heartbeat’ bill

Just a year later, with Reynolds as governor, the Republican-majority Iowa Legislature passed and Reynolds signed into law a bill that would ban abortions once a fetus’ heartbeat can be detected.

Supporters of so-called fetal heartbeat laws say they ban abortions roughly around the sixth week of pregnancy, which often is before a woman is aware she is pregnant. Abortion rights advocates say such a prohibition would end 98 percent of the now-legal abortions in Iowa.

However, some major medical organizations, like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, note that what is detected at six weeks is not a heartbeat, but instead electrical impulses, and that an actual heartbeat does not occur until roughly 17 to 20 weeks of pregnancy.

That law was immediately challenged in the state courts by the women’s reproductive health care and abortion services provider Planned Parenthood.

In 2019, a Polk County District Court Judge ruled the fetal heartbeat bill unconstitutional, saying it violates the due process and equal protection provisions of the Iowa Constitution.

Reynolds did not appeal the ruling at that time because, she said, of recent precedent. In June 2018, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that another Republican-proposed abortion restriction — a three-day waiting period before a woman could have an abortion — was unconstitutional. Then-Chief Justice Mark Cady’s opinion described “the constitutional right of women to terminate a pregnancy.”

Supreme Court rulings

Just one week apart in June of 2022, the Iowa Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court handed down separate rulings that effectively eliminated decadeslong guarantees to a woman’s right to an abortion at both the federal level and in Iowa.

The Iowa Supreme Court’s decision overruled that 2018 opinion that said Iowa women have a constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy. And the U.S. Supreme Court turned the issue back to states to decide.

In the wake of those rulings, Reynolds asked the Iowa courts to lift the injunction and allow the 2018 fetal heartbeat bill to become Iowa law. In December of 2022, a district court judge rejected Reynolds’ request, a ruling appealed to the Iowa Supreme Court.

Friday’s opinion will provide that ruling.

Possible outcomes

The court’s ruling could go in myriad directions, legal experts say.

Derek Muller, a professor at the University of Iowa College of Law who recently accepted a position at the University of Notre Dame Law School, said the three most likely outcomes are:

The Iowa Supreme Court typically posts its most recent rulings on its website at 9 a.m. Fridays.

Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com