Iowa Gov. Reynolds says new abortion restrictions are constitutional, that Iowa Supreme Court ‘got it wrong’

DES MOINES — Saying she believes the Iowa Supreme Court “got it wrong” last month when its split decision left in place a block on abortion restrictions that were passed in 2018 but never became law, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said Tuesday she believes that, given a second chance, justices will uphold a new version of the abortion restrictions.

“I think the law is constitutional. I think they got it wrong the first go-round here a couple of months ago,” Reynolds told reporters at the Iowa Capitol.

Abortion, as the law currently stands, is legal in Iowa until 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Last week, statehouse Republicans passed a new law that made abortion illegal once a “fetal heartbeat” — defined in the law as “cardiac activity, the steady and repetitive rhythmic contraction of the fetal heart within the gestational sac” — is detected. That made abortion illegal possibly as early as the sixth week of pregnancy, before many women are aware they are pregnant.

Reynolds signed the bill into law Friday. But on Monday, a Polk County district judge temporarily blocked enforcement while courts determine its constitutionality.

Reynolds said she will direct the state to appeal that ruling.

“We for sure will be appealing the temporary injunction. It’s just a matter of time,” Reynolds said. “We’re working with the Attorney General’s Office on the details, so hopefully that will be filed yet this week.”

Iowa Republicans in 2018 passed a law that would have banned abortions once a heartbeat is detected. It was blocked by the courts and never took effect.

After rulings in 2022 from the Iowa Supreme Court and U.S. Supreme Court effectively eliminated a right to an abortion at both the state and federal levels, Reynolds asked the state courts to reinstate that 2018 law. In June, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled on Reynolds’ request, issuing a split, 3-3 decision that left the lower court’s ruling in place. That meant the 2018 law remained blocked and abortion remained legal in Iowa.

But the court was ruling on whether it should consider the 2018 law; it was not considering the merits of the law itself.

Conservatives believe that if an abortion case makes it back to the Iowa Supreme Court, this time — in the wake of those 2022 rulings — the state court will apply a lower legal threshold to the new state law and thus find it constitutional.

“I think the bill that we passed is constitutional, especially with the changes that we’ve seen (in the courts),” Reynolds said. “I feel that it’s a good bill. … I think the right to life is the most important right that we have, and without it we have nothing.”

Advocates for access to abortion services celebrated the district judge’s ruling Monday, with an eye toward the legal debate ahead.

“We are deeply relieved that the court granted this relief so essential health care in Iowa can continue,” Dr. Abbey Hardy-Fairbanks, medical director of the Iowa City-based Emma Goldman Clinic, said Monday in a statement. “We are also acutely aware that the relief is only pending further litigation and the future of abortion in Iowa remains tenuous and threatened.”

It is widely expected the issue will return to the Iowa Supreme Court, which may then determine whether abortion restrictions in the state should be required to pass the undue burden legal standard, as they have in the past; or whether the lower legal threshold of rational basis should be applied.

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