Iowa Law Banning Most Abortions Effective Monday

An Iowa law banning most abortions in Iowa will go into effect Monday at 8 a.m. 

A district court judge has filed the motion to dissolve the temporary injunction that has blocked the law for over a year. Last July, Governor Reynolds signed the law that forbids abortions in Iowa after fetal activity can be detected, which happens around the sixth week of a pregnancy. Attorneys for Planned Parenthood and the Emma Goldman Clinic in Iowa City immediately sued. A Polk County District Court judge issued the temporary order that kept the law from going into effect. On June 28th of this year, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled the law was constitutional, but court procedures required the district court to take the final step to have the law go into effect. 

Governor Reynolds signed a similar law in 2018, but the state’s highest court — with a different set of justices than are on the court today — ruled Iowa women had a right to an abortion under the Iowa Constitution. Since then, Reynolds has appointed the four Iowa Supreme Court justices who agreed Iowa’s six week abortion ban is constitutional.

story courtesy of Radio Iowa