Iowa Fetal Heartbeat Law Unconstitutional, Judge Rules

DES MOINES, IA — Iowa’s so-called "fetal heartbeat" law, the most restrictive abortion law in the country, has been struck down as unconstitutional by a state court judge. The law, signed by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds in May, banned most abortions after a heartbeat is detected, typically around six weeks of pregnancy before many women know they're pregnant.

Polk County District Judge Michael Huppert said in a Tuesday ruling the law can’t be enforced. His summary judgment found in favor of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa and the Emma Goldman Clinic, which had said the law violates the Iowa Constitution.

The lawsuit put Iowa at the center of a nationwide abortion rights debate that abortion foes hope will end with a legal challenge to Roe v. Wade, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion in all 50 states. Those challenging the law said it violates Iowa women's due-process rights, their rights to liberty, safety and happiness, and their rights to equal protection under the Iowa Constitution.

In a nine-page ruling released Tuesday — 46 years to the day of the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 rulig in Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion — Huppert cited last year's ruling by the Iowa Supreme Court in a different abortion-restriction law. In that case, the justices held that "a woman's right to decide whether to terminate a pregnancy is a fundamental right under the Iowa Constitution."

That ruling upended an Iowa law that required a 72-hour waiting period for abortions. The fetal heartbeat law, which was to have taken effect on July 1 but was put on hold during the legal challenge.

He said in Tuesday's summary judgment that the law didn't identify a compelling state interest in barring most abortions after a fetus' heartbeat can be detected.

Related: Here Is How Legal Abortions Just Became Illegal In Iowa

Abortion foes are likely to appeal the decision, but because the judge's ruling was based on the Iowa Constitution, the chances it will make it to the U.S. Supreme Court as a test case are slim, legal scholars told the Des Moines Register.

Dr. Jill Meadows, the medical director for Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, said Huppert's ruling "is a victory for every Iowan who has ever needed orwill need a safe, legal abortion," the Cedar Rapids Gazette reported.

In a statement, state Sen. Janet Petersen of Des Moines, Democrats' leader in the Senate, praised the ruling.

“The extreme law should have been overturned, because it restricted the freedom of Iowa women and girls to care for their bodies and it forced motherhood on them," she wrote. "The governor and legislative Republicans should stop attacking women’s health care."

When Reynolds signed the law, she said she was “very confident” it would survive a constitutional challenge. However, similar laws in North Dakota and Arkansas have been struck down by appeals courts that ruled they were unconstitutional. Lawmakers in Mississippi passed and the governor signed a 15-week abortion ban in 2018, but implementation was put on hold after a court challenge.

In 2016, Ohio Gov. John Kasich vetoed a fetal heartbeat law, citing its constitutional problems, but signed a less-restrictive 20-week abortion ban.

Republicans who pushed the new fetal heartbeat law through the Iowa statehouse last year said they were pursuing a deliberate strategy to get a case before Supreme Court, which so far has refused to hear appeals of the lower court rulings striking down the North Dakota and Arkansas law. However, abortion foes are optimistic that as President Trump appoints more conservative federal judges, a case could make its way to the Supreme Court.

"We at the state legislatures, especially Republican-controlled legislatures, have a responsibility to kind of reload," state Sen.Rick Bertrand, a Republican from Sioux City, told The New York Times. "We need to create vehicles that will allow the Supreme Court possibly to reach back and take this case, and to take up an anti-abortion case."

The Iowa law would have provided exemptions in cases of rape, incest or fetal abnormality that is incompatible with life.

Image: Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds delivers her Condition of the State address before a joint session of the Iowa Legislature, Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019, at the Statehouse in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)