Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has announced the state will not appeal the recent district court decision that struck down the so-called "fetal heartbeat" bill as unconstitutional.
ACLU of Iowa Executive Director Mark Stringer said, "We’re glad that politicians are recognizing what we have known all along—that the Iowa Constitution has strong protections for women’s rights, including abortion access, and that attempts to seriously erode those rights will be struck down. We’re proud of a Constitution that affirms a women’s fundamental right, in consultation with her doctor and loved ones, to make one of the most difficult, personal decisions she’ll ever make. Government has no place in that.
Moving forward, we’ll continue to fight efforts to amend the Iowa Constitution to ban abortion. Some people want to drag us back to a time when women died out of desperation to control their lives and their bodies. We won’t go back, and we’re glad that politicians have not been successful in implementing what would have been the most extreme ban on abortions in the country, especially considering the fact that a 6-week abortion ban law did not have the support of the majority of Iowans.”
Abortion rights in Iowa have been under assault in recent years. In 2017, extremist politicians in the Iowa Legislature successfully pushed through a law that required a second, unnecessary medical clinic and 72-hour waiting period for women seeking an abortion. The ACLU of Iowa, Planned Parenthood, and the Emma Goldman Clinic of Iowa City brought a lawsuit that was struck down by the Iowa Supreme Court. In 2018, the Iowa Legislature passed an even more restrictive law, the so-called and misnamed “fetal heartbeat” bill, that would have banned most abortions at around 6 weeks. If it had been implemented, it would have been the most restrictive abortion ban in the country.
