Iowa could become the next state to protect babies from abortions if the Iowa Supreme Court issues a ruling upholding the state’s heartbeat law, which bans aboritons on babies with beating hearts.
Right now, abortions are legal for any reason up to 20 weeks in Iowa. The state heartbeat law, which prohibits abortions once an unborn baby’s heartbeat is detectable, about six weeks, is blocked by a court order, but state Attorney General Brenna Bird is fighting to reinstate the law.
Iowa is one of eight states that are fighting in court to enforce laws that protect unborn babies from abortions. Currently, 14 others are enforcing pro-life laws that prohibit or strictly limit the killing of unborn babies in abortions. SBA Pro-Life America estimates these state laws are saving more than 125,000 unborn babies’ lives.
The Iowa Supreme Court will hear arguments today about whether to enforce the pro-life measure. The hearing comes after a ruling last year from the state’s highest court determining that the state Constitution does not confer a right to kill babies in abortions.
In response, Gov. Kim Reynolds asked the courts to lift their injunction on the six-week abortion ban and allow the law to take effect. A district court judge ruled in December that the permanent injunction on the law would remain in place. Reynolds appealed that decision, sending the case to the Iowa Supreme Court.
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Attorneys for Planned Parenthoodand another abortion business will argue that their abortion businesses should be allowed to continue.
Should thehighest court uphold the heartbeat law, state lawmakers are prepared to push for a stronger pro-life law to protect unborn babies beginning at conception.
The case about a so-called right to abortion involves a 2020 law that ensures abortion facilities give women the opportunity to see their unborn babies on an ultrasound and hear their baby’s heartbeat at least 24 hours prior to the abortion. In addition, Iowa requires abortion facilities to provide women with information about abortion risks and resources available for parenting and adoption, and to confirm in writing that the women received it.
A state judge blocked the law, citing the 2018 Iowa Supreme Court ruling, but Gov. Kim Reynolds and 60 pro-life state lawmakers appealed.
Assistant Attorney General Sam Langholztold the Iowa Supreme Court that it should overturn its 2018 ruling declaring a right to abortion in the state constitution and today the court did just that. Justices determined that the state court wrongly decided that abortion is among the fundamental privacy rights guaranteed by the Iowa Constitution and federal law.
In its 2018 ruling, decided by a 5-2 vote, the court said that “autonomy and dominion over one’s body go to the very heart of what it means to be free.” The reversal comes thanks to pro-life Gov. Kim Reynolds, who has named four of the justices to the court since 2017.
Justice Edward Mansfield wrote the 182-page opinion, which says “the Iowa Constitution is not the source of a fundamental right to an abortion necessitating a strict scrutiny standard of review for regulations affecting that right.”
Lawyer Chris Schandovel, who represents the state lawmakers, said the Iowa Supreme Court was wrong in declaring abortion to be a right. He said fundamental rights are deeply rooted in the history and tradition of the state, and Iowa prohibited abortions starting in 1843.
For nearly 50 years under Roe, abortions destroyed more than 64 million unborn babies in abortions. Only now that Roe has been overturned may states again protect the right to life for all human beings, born and unborn.
Two new polls show growing public support for legal protections for unborn babies. A Marist College poll found 69 percent of Americans support limiting or banning abortions, up from 62 percent in June. Another new poll from UMass Amherst found a 5-percent drop in those who say Congress should pass a law to make abortions legal nation-wide and a 6-percent increase in support for a national abortion ban, WCVB News reports.
