Judge agrees to halt fetal heartbeat abortion law in Iowa
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
DES MOINES, Iowa — A judge agreed Friday to temporarily block the most restrictive abortion law in the country from taking effect in Iowa next month under an agreement between lawyers for the state and abortion rights groups. Attorneys for the state and Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds said during a court hearing that they agreed to prevent the law from taking effect on July 1 after discussions with the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, Planned Parenthood Federation of American and the Emma Goldman Clinic. The advocacy groups argue the law is unconstitutional and have filed a lawsuit to block the law, which bans most abortions if a fetal heartbeat can be detected. An attorney representing the state said the goal now is to quickly get the case before a judge so the state can argue the law is constitutional.
Judge Michael Huppert said he would formally issue a temporary injunction later in the day. Reynolds signed the law May 2, two days after lawmakers approved it. If the law is eventually allowed to take effect, the fetal heartbeat requirement would ban abortions around the sixth week of pregnancy — a time when, abortion-rights groups say, many women don't even know they're pregnant. Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller has refused to defend the law, so the Thomas More Society, a conservative Chicago-based law firm, has agreed to handle the defense for free. The law's approval marked a dramatic change in abortion policy in Iowa. Until the 2016 election, the state had little to no role in the broad Republican effort to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that established a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy until a fetus is viable
But the election flipped control of the Iowa Senate, putting Republicans in charge of the Legislature and the governor's office for the first time in two decades. Up to that point, Democrats had maintained enough political power to curtail most Republican anti-abortion attempts. Lawmakers adopted several abortion restrictions in 2017, including a 20-week abortion ban and a requirement that women wait three days before ending a pregnancy. The waiting provision, one of the longest in the country, is on hold because of a different lawsuit. Separately, a new Iowa-based coalition of anti-abortion organizations was formed last year to renew efforts toward an abortion ban. The Coalition of Pro-Life Leaders, which includes Family Leader, put aside years of disagreement among the groups to help win passage of the 20-week ban and the six-week ban. Iowa Republicans last year also gave up millions in federal dollars to create a state-funded family planning program that prohibits participation from abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood.
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This law is blatantly unconstitutional. It's no surprise it comes from Republican lawmakers and approved by a Republican governor. I'll bet this law will get struck down as unconstitutional.
They know this religious nonsense is unconstitutional when they write it, but they are pandering to their conservative followers before the midterms. Their part in this legislation will be a highlight of their campaign adverts to their fundamentalist demographic.
ALEC sponsors this nonsense legislation because it keeps conservative voters going to the polls where they vote for the Koch-funded economic nonsense that hurts the very people that support this religious idiocy.
So predictable such lawmakers and their constituents are.
And on & on it goes.
Indeed. They're persistent, I'll give them that.
Good!!
The republican war on women marches forward into the 1870's..
I really don't get why politicians are keeping this as an issue. Its done, let it go and move on.
I think it's an obsession with them at this point.
Clearly it is an obsession.
They need to look at what happened in Ireland
I think they did. Before their constitutional amendment vote, when Ireland's abortion laws were utterly draconian. And they liked what they saw and have been trying to emulate it since.
it's all about control of other people's lives it seems, thankfully there are efforts to stop it so women can make their own decisions with their own bodies and not be used as breeding mares
Control is certainly a part of it.
That reply was meant for Phoenyx13 post #7.