Des Moines, IA- An attorney for the State of Iowa is asking the state Supreme Court to allow a ban on most abortions to take effect.
Radio Iowa reports that four years ago, Governor Reynolds approved a bill to ban abortions after the sixth week of a pregnancy, a so-called fetal heartbeat law. Abortion rights advocates immediately sued and a district court judge issued an order that has prevented the law from taking effect.
Alan Ostergren, the attorney who’s representing the state on this case, argues the Iowa Supreme Court has the authority and duty to lift the district court’s injunction after recent rulings from the Iowa and U.S. Supreme Courts.
Ostergren wrote in a legal brief that those rulings prove neither the state or federal constitutions ever protected a fundamental right to an abortion.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa has argued the six-week abortion ban was unconstitutional at the time it was passed, and Republican lawmakers who support abortion restrictions should vote on a new law under the new legal precedents established by the courts.
New restrictions on abortion have taken effect in about 15 states since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade in June. The six week ban in Iowa would include exceptions for rape, incest, fetal abnormalities, and to save the mother’s life.
