Iowa AG Brenna Bird files appeal defending halted Iowa abortion ban

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird on Wednesday filed the legal case her team will present when the Iowa Supreme Court hears arguments around legislation that would prohibit the vast majority of abortions in the state.

A Polk County District Court judge temporarily blocked enforcement of the law back in July — three days after Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed it at the Family Leadership Summit, a gathering of conservative Christians — until its constitutionality can be considered by the courts.

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Planned Parenthood and Iowa abortion providers sued to stop the law from going into effect.

The order means abortion — for now — remains legal in Iowa up until 20 weeks of pregnancy.

The law prohibits abortions once a “fetal heartbeat” — defined as “cardiac activity, the steady and repetitive rhythmic contraction of the fetal heart within the gestational sac” — is detected. Doctors would be required to first perform an abdominal ultrasound to detect embryonic or fetal cardiac activity.

The law would change the amount of time that women have to seek an abortion from 20 weeks post-fertilization to as little as six weeks — before many women know they are pregnant.

The bill includes exceptions for pregnancies that are the result of rape in cases reported within 45 days, and incest in cases reported within 140 days. It also includes exceptions for miscarriages, a fetal abnormality that would result in the infant’s death and for when the mother’s life is threatened.

An attorney for Planned Parenthood Federation of America argued in court that the law “unquestionably imposes an undue burden” on Iowans’ access to abortion care and violates their constitutional rights to due process, dominion over one’s body, the ability to “have control over their lives and their futures” and to make their own decisions about their health care.

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While the ban contains some exceptions for abortions, Iowa physicians have warned the restrictions do not account for complications that occur during pregnancy, and will hinder their ability to provide necessary care and respond to time-sensitive issues.

In the wake of Iowa and U.S. Supreme Court rulings reversing a fundamental right to abortion, Bird argues a new “rational basis” test now applies in court. To pass the test, laws need only be “rationally related to a legitimate governmental interest.”

Bird, in her filing, urges the Iowa Supreme Court to “explicitly adopt this test, uphold the Fetal Heartbeat Statute, dissolve the District Court’s injunction, and render judgment for the State.”

The brief also argues that abortion providers have no standing to sue, given that there is no constitutional right to provide abortions.

"No right is more valuable than the right to life," Bird said in a statement. "Each day, innocent, unborn lives are lost to abortion. We know that every moment counts when it comes to protecting the unborn and are working diligently to ensure the Heartbeat Law is upheld. I’m confident that the law is on our side, and we will continue fighting to defend the right to life in court."

Reynolds, in a statement in response to the brief filed Wednesday, said “it’s time for the Fetal Heartbeat Law to be upheld once and for all.”

“The injunction placed on Iowa’s Fetal Heartbeat Law has already led to the innocent deaths of children. It needs to end,” Reynolds said. “Every life is valuable and worth our state's protection — no matter what stage of life they are in.”

Iowa Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, D-West Des Moines, said Wednesday’s legal filing and statements by Bird and Reynolds “show once again how extreme, anti-choice politicians are out of touch with the will of Iowa voters.”

“A substantial majority of Iowans support safe, legal access to abortion and reject attacks on reproductive freedom in Iowa — and so do Senate Democrats,” Trone Garriott said in a statement.

Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com