In a development that occurred a week after Iowa’s Attorney General Brenna Bird requested that the state Supreme Court uphold Iowa’s Heartbeat law, the Alliance Defending Freedom filed a brief in support of the law. The brief was built around the premise that “states have the strongest possible interest in protecting the most fundamental of our human rights—the right to life.”
The Heartbeat law, which was enacted in 2018, prevents abortions after the fetal heartbeat can be detected, which occurs approximately after six weeks of gestation.
Iowans are eager to affirm that life is a human right, which is why the legislature has passed the fetal heartbeat law multiple times, trying its best to enshrine into law further protections for unborn children. Iowa women deserve the dignity and respect that comes from receiving life-affirming health care—not the abortion industry’s false choice between doing what’s best for women and protecting the lives of their unborn children. We are urging the court to allow the state’s fetal heartbeat law to finally take effect.
“It is evident that each moment is crucial in safeguarding the unborn, and thus, we are exerting our utmost efforts to ensure the enforcement of the Heartbeat Law,” Attorney General Bird stated in a press release. “I am confident that the law is on our side, and we will continue to fight to defend the right to life in court.”
Iowa’s pro-life Governor Kim Reynolds stated, “The people of Iowa and their elected representatives have made their position on the matter abundantly clear, with a larger margin of support than previously expressed: it is now time for the Fetal Heartbeat Law to be upheld in its entirety.” Furthermore, she posited that the injunction placed on Iowa’s Fetal Heartbeat Law has already resulted in the deaths of innocent children. It is imperative that this situation be brought to a conclusion. Every life is of intrinsic value and deserves the protection of the state, regardless of the stage of life in which it is found.
In her 64-page brief, Attorney General Bird wrote
That ruling was [in]error. The State of Iowa has a vital interest in protecting unborn human life at all stages of development. The injunction precluding enforcement of Iowa’s Fetal Heartbeat Statute undermines that interest, ignores recent developments in State and federal law, and misapplies this Court’s recent abortion precedent”.
Robin Opshal of the Iowa Capital Dispatch has written that the Republican attorney general is arguing in a brief that the challenge by Planned Parenthood North Central States, the Emma Goldman Clinic, and the ACLU of Iowa should be rejected, as it relies on the legal test that was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision. Additionally, Bird posits that abortion providers are precluded from initiating legal action, given that there is no constitutional right to provide abortions. This assertion is corroborated by a news release.
In a June decision, the state Supreme Court
let an injunction stand for a nearly identical law approved in 2018. Reynolds had asked the court to lift the injunction. Justice Thomas D. Waterman wrote for the majority that the 2018 abortion law was passed by lawmakers during a time when its restrictions were unconstitutional under state and federal precedents. However, he wrote, the law could be upheld if passed again now that the U.S. and state supreme courts have found there was no constitutional right to an abortion.
Within weeks of the decision, Reynolds convened the Iowa Legislature for a one-day special session to pass the six-week abortion ban legislation again. She signed the law July 14.
The new law was immediately challenged, and a Polk County district judge issued an injunction on the law three days after Reynolds’ signing.
Chelsea Garcia is a political writer with a special interest in international relations and social issues. Events surrounding the war in Ukraine and the war in Israel are a major focus for political journalists. But as a former local reporter, she is also interested in national politics.
Chelsea Garcia studied media, communication and political science in Texas, USA, and learned the journalistic trade during an internship at a daily newspaper. In addition to her political writing, she is pursuing a master's degree in multimedia and writing at Texas.
