Iowa judge says measure, which would ban an abortion after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, violated state constitution

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A state judge on Tuesday struck down Iowa’s restrictive “fetal heartbeat” abortion law, which would have been the most restrictive anti-abortion law in the nation.

Judge Michael Huppert found the law unconstitutional, concluding that the Iowa supreme court’s earlier decisions that affirm a woman’s fundamental right to an abortion would cover the new law, passed last year.

He also cited several cases in federal court, including decisions in 2015 and 2016 in the eighth US circuit court of appeals that indicated such abortion laws were unconstitutional.

Huppert said prohibiting abortions at the detection of a fetal heartbeat violated “both the due process and equal protection provisions of the Iowa Constitution as not being narrowly tailored to serve the compelling state interest of promoting potential life”.

The law would ban an abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected. That can happen as early as six weeks into pregnancy.

The legal challenge by the reproductive health groups Planned Parenthood of the Heartland and the Emma Goldman Clinic had halted it from taking effect last July.

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Erin Davison-Rippey, Planned Parenthood’s state executive director of Iowa, said the law was Governor Kim Reynolds’ “egregious attempt to ban safe, legal abortions in Iowa”.

“Planned Parenthood will continue to stand up for Iowa women and fight back against the legislature’s attacks on reproductive health. We will do all we can to make sure abortion continues to be safe and legal in our state – no matter what,” she said.

Reynolds said in a statement: “I am incredibly disappointed in today’s court ruling, because I believe that if death is determined when a heart stops beating, then a beating heart indicates life.”

She signed the bill into law in May 2018.

The ruling, released on the 46th anniversary of the 1973 US supreme court decision Roe v Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide, was met with determination to continue to fight by opponents.

The Republican state representative Sandy Salmons, the main sponsor of the bill in the house, was disappointed the judge ended the case before it could be tried before a jury.

“He didn’t even let it go to trial so that an unborn baby could be defended in court,” she said.

She said she hoped the state would appeal the ruling to the Iowa supreme court and she suspected Republicans would work on further legislation “to make corrections to what the courts have done”.

The senate Democratic leader, Janet Petersen, said the decision sent a strong message to Iowa women that their constitutional rights are important and their healthcare decisions should be made by them, not politicians.

“The extreme law should have been overturned because it restricted the freedom of Iowa women and girls to care for their bodies and it forced motherhood on them,” she said.

The Iowa supreme court in June struck down an earlier law that required a 72-hour waiting period for women seeking an abortion, ruling that the restriction was unconstitutional and that “autonomy and dominion over one’s body go to the very heart of what it means to be free”.