A Polk County judge has denied a motion by an anti-abortion group to join a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Iowa's fetal heartbeat law.

District Court Judge Michael Huppert issued a ruling Wednesday afternoon denying a motion by the group, Save the 1, to intervene in the case. He said allowing the group to join would delay the case and raise new issues that are not currently the subject of dispute in the lawsuit brought by Planned Parenthood of the Heartland and the Iowa City-based Emma Goldman Clinic.

Save the 1 is a Michigan-based nonprofit made up of women who were conceived in rape, incest or sex trafficking or became pregnant under those circumstances. Its lawyers have argued for the elimination of exceptions in the fetal heartbeat law that allow abortions for women who are victims of rape or incest. It says those laws violate equal protection and due process.

The law in question would ban nearly all abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can occur about six weeks into a pregnancy and often before a woman realizes she’s pregnant. It is blocked from taking effect until the litigation is resolved.

The plaintiffs say the law violates Iowa women’s due-process rights, their rights to liberty, safety and happiness and their rights to equal protection under Iowa’s constitution.

Lawyers for the state and the plaintiffs had argued against letting Save the 1 join the case.

Although Save the 1 also raised equal protection and due process concerns, lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, which is representing Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, said those claims were contrary to the issues raised by the plaintiffs, who want the law struck down.

Rita Bettis Austen, legal director for the ACLU of Iowa, said she was pleased with Huppert's ruling.

"Today, the court appropriately recognized that Save the 1's arguments to compel survivors of rape to carry their pregnancy to term were directly contrary to our case," Bettis Austen said in a statement. "With this motion out of the way, we are now looking forward to the next stages in our case to get the six-week ban on abortion in Iowa struck down for good."

Save the 1 had argued it should be allowed to join the lawsuit by right to represent its interests, or at the discretion of the judge. Huppert denied the request to join as a matter of right, describing the group's goals as "heartfelt" but short of the legal standard.

"As applied to the present request, the court cannot identify what interest Save the 1 and its members have that would allow them to qualify as an intervenor as a matter of right," Huppert wrote.

Huppert also found that allowing Save the 1 to join the suit would delay the resolution of the lawsuit and bring up legal issues under the U.S. Constitution when the original plaintiffs only raised claims under the Iowa Constitution.

Save the 1's claims "go far beyond the legal and factual constructs currently in place within the present litigation," Huppert wrote.

Huppert also cited a conflict of interest problem that would have been caused by allowing Save the 1 to join the lawsuit. The Thomas More Society, a conservative law firm defending the law, helped Save the 1 establish itself as a nonprofit, and state lawyers said they would have to hire new lawyers if the group could no longer work on the case.

The Thomas More Society was hired to represent the state for free after Attorney General Tom Miller disqualified himself from defending the law, citing a "core belief" that it would undermine women's rights.

Lynn Hicks, a spokesman for the attorney general's office, said the office appreciates Huppert's "prompt resolution of this issue."

Martin Cannon, a lawyer for the Thomas More Society, also said he was glad to have the issue resolved. His group will be able to remain on the case without Save the 1 involved, he said.

"I can tell you that it’s nice to have that motion disposed of and I think now we can get to litigating the main issue much more expeditiously," Cannon said.

Group says it will file a federal lawsuit next

Save the 1's president, Rebecca Kiessling, said Thursday that the group will file a federal lawsuit challenging the rape and incest exceptions.

By trying to join the case, she said, she had hoped to move the entire lawsuit into the federal court system, but this week's ruling means that won't be possible.

Conservatives hope a lawsuit over abortion restrictions like Iowa's will travel through federal court to the U.S. Supreme Court and give the justices a chance to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that established the right to abortion.

A state lawsuit like Planned Parenthood's does not provide that opportunity because it will ultimately end up in front of the Iowa Supreme Court, which in June found the state constitution offers protections for abortion that are separate from and stronger than current protections in federal law and invalidated a 72-hour waiting period to get an abortion.

Kiessling said she is supportive of the fetal heartbeat law as a whole, but believes the exceptions are unconstitutional.

"I feel very sad that we were not able to help preserve this law with our participation in the case," she said.

She said she believes the Iowa Supreme Court ruling, which happened after Save the 1 filed its motion to intervene in the Planned Parenthood case, means that the heartbeat law "is going to be killed in state court."

"If they held the 72-hour waiting period law unconstitutional, they’re definitely going to hold this one unconstitutional," she said.

Still, she said she believes a federal challenge to the law's rape and incest exceptions has a chance of success.

"I think our case could survive," she said. "Even if this law is ultimately overturned, we’ll be able to make our way through the federal court system."