Lawsuit challenges new Iowa abortion restrictions

DES MOINES - Planned Parenthood and American Civil Liberties Union attorneys filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking an emergency injunction to block provisions of new abortion restrictions passed by the Legislature that Gov. Terry Branstad plans to sign into law Friday.

A hearing is slated for Thursday afternoon in Polk County District Court on the request for an order to halt immediate implementation of a law requiring a 72-hour waiting period for abortions at any stage of pregnancy. Senate File 471 also requires an additional clinic appointment for Iowa women seeking abortions that the challenging parties say is medically unnecessary.

The lawsuit - filed by the ACLU of Iowa and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America on behalf of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland - contends the measure contains provisions that are unconstitutional violations of women's equal protection and rights to legal abortion.

At the time the bill was passed, Sen. Mark Chelgren, R-Ottumwa, called the waiting period the 'time share clause.”

'No one would buy a time share if they were able to go home and talk to their friends, talk to the neighbors, pray about it and sleep on it and talk to people they trusted,” Chelgren said then. 'Anyone who wants to get an abortion and has made that decision can do so under this bill. ... All they have to do is wait 72 hours to make sure that that decision was right, because it's an irreversible decision.”

At least for now, the litigants are not challenging a separate ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy that also is part of the measure.

Rita Bettis, ACLU of Iowa legal director, said the lawsuit was filed now because the new abortion law would take effect immediately upon Branstad signing it at a ceremony set for 8:30 a.m. Friday at the state Capitol.

Opponents of the measure said that means the law would immediately interrupt the appointments - and lives - of women already scheduled to have abortion procedures that day and the following days.

'This reckless, immediate effective date will throw the lives of women and medical services in Iowa into a state of chaos,” Bettis told a news conference Wednesday.

Some of the affected women are likely to be very near the point in their pregnancy at which they can no longer use medication abortion, she noted. As a result, they would be forced to decide between having a surgical procedure or being stopped from accessing a legal abortion, she said.

'This abortion restriction takes us back decades,” said Suzanna de Baca, leader of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland. 'It is among the harshest in the nation and will strip access away from the most vulnerable women who need abortion care.”

With that in mind, attorneys for the ACLU and Planned Parenthood filed their request asking a district judge to hold an emergency hearing before the bill is signed. The attorneys hope for an emergency injunction as the law is challenged.

'Especially in a rural state like Iowa, requiring a three-day waiting period and a medically unjustified second visit makes it difficult for women who may have to drive hours to a health center,” Bettis said. 'It also makes it more difficult for them to secure transportation, take off time from work, find child care, or keep the procedure private.”

The challenging parties said the law would make Iowa one of only three states - joining Missouri and South Dakota - that require a 72-hour waiting period and two-trip requirement. Louisiana passed a similar law but it has been temporarily enjoined, the attorney said.

'The governor, lieutenant governor and Iowa legislators have waged an outright war on women's access to safe and legal abortion,” de Baca said. 'Planned Parenthood will continue to fight and we will pursue every possible avenue to continue providing care to our patients, no matter what.”

 l Comments: (515) 243-7220; rod.boshart@thegazette.com.