Slamming Roe v. Wade as a “fatal mistake,” Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds joined pro-life women leaders across the country Monday in urging the U.S. Supreme Court to restore protections for unborn babies.
The Des Moines Register reports Reynolds said the Supreme Court has “its best opportunity yet” to overturn Roe v. Wade when it hears a major abortion case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, on Wednesday.
“For years, democratically elected representatives in our states have tried to defend innocent human life in the womb only to be prevented by these incoherent decisions,” Reynolds said during an event hosted by the Susan B. Anthony List. “Here in Iowa, I’m not alone among elected leaders who are eager to finally have this overdue democratic debate and protect life.”
Pro-life advocates hope the high court will chip away at Roe or overturn it altogether through the Mississippi case. It centers around a 2018 state law that prohibits abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy and the question of “whether all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortion are unconstitutional.”
Currently, under Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, states are prohibited from protecting unborn babies from abortion before viability, about 22 weeks of pregnancy.
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Reynolds said these infamous abortion rulings led to millions of children being killed in abortions, according to the report. A pro-life Republican, the governor said the Mississippi case is the court’s “best opportunity yet to undo its fatal mistake.”
“By disregarding state sovereignty, Roe and Casey have killed millions of unborn children,” she continued. “With Dobbs, the Supreme Court can strike a blow for democratic self-government, restore constitutional integrity and right a historic wrong.”
Earlier this year, Reynolds joined a dozen pro-life governors in an amicus brief to the Supreme Court that argues for renewed legal protections for unborn babies. In the brief, the governors urged the court to give “this issue back to the people” and allow states to protect unborn babies from abortions again.
As governor of Iowa, Reynolds has been working to protect unborn babies and mothers from abortion, including by signing several pro-life bills. She also asked the Iowa Supreme Court to overturn a 2018 ruling that found a “right” to abortion in the Iowa Constitution. In June, Reynolds said the court was wrong to strike down “our efforts to protect all innocent human life.”
Since the Supreme Court ruled on Roe in 1973, almost 63 million unborn babies and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of mothers have been killed in legal abortions.
The United States is one of only seven countries in the world that allows elective abortion on demand after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Most countries, including in Europe, have laws that protect unborn babies from abortion after the first trimester, if not sooner.
Polls consistently show that a strong majority of Americans oppose abortions in the second and third trimesters and many support heartbeat laws that protect unborn babies at their earliest stage of life.
In recent months, thousands of people, including hundreds of pro-life lawmakers, ivy league professors, state attorneys general, governors, former Vice President Mike Pence, religious and civil rights leaders, hundreds of women leaders and more have filed amicus briefs to the Supreme Court in support of Mississippi and its efforts to save unborn babies from abortion.
