Anti-abortion group seeks to strike rape and incest exceptions from Iowa's fetal abortion heartbeat law

An anti-abortion group is arguing that Iowa's fetal heartbeat abortion ban doesn't go far enough because it allows abortions in some cases of rape, incest and fetal abnormalities.

The group, 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. Members of Save the 1 say their lives and their children's lives are just as precious as those conceived under different circumstances.

"I have a 3-year-old son and he plays with Legos and he pronounces hospital 'hostable' and he sleeps with a bunny slipper and he was conceived in rape," said Jennifer Christie, one of the group's board members, in Des Moines on Tuesday. "And his heart beats like everybody else’s."

Save the 1 filed a motion Tuesday to intervene in a lawsuit brought by Planned Parenthood of the Heartland and the Iowa City-based Emma Goldman Clinic. Those groups argue the law would violate Iowa women’s rights to due process, their rights to liberty, safety and happiness, and their rights to equal protection under Iowa’s constitution by denying them the opportunity to have a legal abortion.

Save the 1 is also making due process and equal protection arguments under Iowa's constitution, as well as the United States Constitution. But it argues in its motion that those rights are violated when women who were victims of rape or incest have abortions.

Save the 1 is supportive of the fetal heartbeat law as a whole and hopes a judge will rule against the law's exceptions while allowing the remainder of the legislation to stand.

"We support the heartbeat bill. We want to see the legislation upheld but we want to see the offending provisions severed," said Rebecca Kiessling, an attorney and the founder and president of Save the 1.

Kiessling, who said she was conceived through rape and has advocated against rape exceptions in other states that restrict abortion, said the group's court motion in the case is the first to challenge the exceptions of a law restricting abortions.

A Polk County judge blocked the law while the lawsuit is ongoing. If it takes effect, the law 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.

The law includes exceptions if the woman was raped or was the victim of incest and reports the crime to law enforcement or a doctor within a certain period of time, and if the fetus has an abnormality that, in a physician's "reasonable medical judgment," is incompatible with life.

Save the 1 argues that those exceptions are unconstitutional "not because the exceptions are too limited, but to the contrary — because, as people conceived in rape and diagnosed with fetal abnormalities, the exceptions target their very lives."

A judge has discretion over whether to grant the group's motion to intervene and to allow them to participate in the case. Lawyers for the plaintiffs and the state can choose to file a resistance, arguing against granting the motion.

"Yes, we will definitely be resisting the motion and we look forward to the judge’s decision," said Veronica Fowler, communications director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, which is representing the plaintiffs.

Martin Cannon, senior counsel at the Thomas More Society, which is representing the state, said Tuesday that had just seen the motion to intervene and couldn't comment on it in detail. He said he and his team are "considering our options" about whether to file a resistance.

"We will defend the existing bill, and when other people want to chime in on it, that may be their right, but we’ll just deal with it as it comes," he said.

Brenna Smith, a spokeswoman for Gov. Kim Reynolds, said in an email that the governor's office hasn't reviewed the filings and will be conferring with counsel.

Save the 1 says it should be allowed to intervene in the lawsuit since Planned Parenthood will not argue for its interests.

The group's motion states that Iowa's law does not define the terms rape, incest, fetal abnormality or incompatible with life and that the exceptions were a political, rather than a medical, necessity.

"The language was added to appease House Republicans who said they would not approve the bill without language that excludes these children from protection," Save the 1 argued in a brief supporting its motion.

A version of the fetal heartbeat law passed the Iowa Senate in February without exceptions, but the final bill, which Reynolds signed on May 4, included exceptions added by House Republicans. The Iowa Senate then voted to approve it in a late-night session.

State Sen. Rick Bertrand, R-Sioux City, calls himself a "no exceptions guy" when it comes to abortion. He voted for the Senate bill without exceptions and the final version that included exceptions and said Save the 1's motion signals to legislatures in other states that there is a constituency willing to fight for abortion bans without exceptions.

"It gives signals to other state legislatures, especially other Republican legislatures, that there are groups that are willing to step in when you have this language in there," he said.

Bertrand said he is not familiar with Save the 1, but is supportive of groups challenging abortion in the courts if they believe they have standing to do so. He and other Republicans say they hope Iowa's law will reach the U.S. Supreme Court and provide a means for it to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that found women have a constitutional right to an abortion.

Because Planned Parenthood's lawsuit was filed in state court, the case is less likely to reach the U.S. Supreme Court, which cannot review state supreme court decisions concerning state constitutional questions.

Iowans' views on abortion and when life begins have remained deeply divided over the past four decades, a review of Iowa Poll surveys shows. A September 1978 poll showed that 53 percent of Iowans believed life starts at conception although 53 percent also said they supported legalized abortion in a variety of circumstances.

A September 2008 Iowa Poll showed Iowans nearly evenly divided on the issue: 48 percent of those polled said abortion should be legal in all or most instances; 46 percent said it should be illegal in most or all cases. A poll conducted earlier this year showed that 55 percent of Iowans favored defining life as beginning at conception.