Des Moines, Iowa — Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird says she’s involved in developing legal strategy as her office prepares to ask the Iowa Supreme Court to let the state’s new Fetal Heartbeat Act take effect.
Bird says there have been big changes in the legal landscape since the U-S Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade last year.
Attorneys from outside groups represented the state when Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union successfully blocked a similar 2018 law from taking effect. The previous Attorney General, Democrat Tom Miller, declined to defend the law in court. Bird, a Republican, defeated Miller in last year’s election.
Governor Reynolds asked the Republican-led legislature to meet earlier this month and pass a bill that bans most abortions when cardiac activity can be detected, typically around the sixth week of a pregnancy. The move came soon after a three-to-three vote among the Iowa Supreme Court justices over whether to lift an injunction that had prevented the 2018 law from taking effect.
Bird, a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, made her comment during a weekend appearance on “Iowa Press” on Iowa PBS.
