Des Moines, Iowa — Governor Kim Reynolds says an appeal will be filed as soon as possible to challenge a judge’s injunction that has blocked enforcement of a ban on most abortions in Iowa.
Reynolds signed a bill into law last Friday that immediately banned most abortions at or near the sixth week of a pregnancy, when cardiac activity is first detected. A district court judge issued a temporary injunction to block enforcement as a lawsuit challenging the policy makes its way through the court system.
The bill that passed the legislature a week ago is nearly identical to a 2018 law that was ruled unconstitutional by the Iowa Supreme Court. Five years later, Reynolds has appointed five of the seven justices on the state’s highest court. That court ruled in June of last year that the Iowa constitution does not guarantee a right to an abortion, a week before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade. Reynolds says last month, the Iowa Supreme Court got it wrong when it failed on a tie vote to let the 2018 Fetal Heartbeat Act go into effect and that’s why GOP lawmakers approved a nearly identical bill last week in a special legislative session.
House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst says Reynolds and Republican lawmakers have stopped listening to the “strong majority of Iowans who do not support their abortion ban.”
