An Iowa judge on Monday temporarily blocked the state's more restrictive new abortion measures, only a few days after Republican Governor Kim Reynolds signed them into law.
Iowa is one of the many Republican-led states that have pursued heavier restrictions on access to abortions after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer. The state's new law, which banned most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, was passed by the GOP-controlled state legislature last week in a rare all-day session.
That passage resulted in a swift legal challenge to the bill from the ACLU of Iowa, Planned Parenthood North Central States, and the Emma Goldman Clinic. Joseph Seidlin, an associate judge for the Fifth District of Iowa court, heard arguments on the matter on Friday, and on Monday issued the injunction against the law while the court continues to assess its constitutionality, the Associated Press reported.
"We are relieved that Iowans will be protected in their ability to seek abortion care for the time being under the order issued today," Rita Bettis Austen, legal director for the ACLU of Iowa, said in a statement provided to Newsweek. "This order is essential to protecting the bodily autonomy rights and freedom of Iowans, as well as their health and safety, while this unconstitutional and dangerous abortion ban is litigated. We know Iowans stand with us in wanting to protect abortion rights and keep politicians out of doctor-patient decisionmaking. We are also grateful to the court for hearing and deciding this case so quickly, as necessitated by the state's unnecessarily cruel emergency effective date provision."
With a temporary blockage in place, abortions will be available in Iowa for pregnancies as far along as 20 weeks, per a ruling from the state's Supreme Court.
"The abortion industry's attempt to thwart the will of Iowans and the voices of their elected representatives continues today," Reynolds said in a statement following Seidlin's decision on Monday.
The law, like many others passed by Republican legislatures, is designed to ban abortion after the point at which fetuses begin to demonstrate electrical impulses that eventually become rhythmic and are often miscategorized as "fetal heartbeats." Medical experts have called that terminology inaccurate, as the heart is only just beginning to develop at six weeks and will not be pumping blood for some time.
A handful of exceptions past the six week mark have been carved out in the law: in cases of rape that were reported to police or doctors within 45 days, in cases of incest reported within 145 days, in cases where certain fetal abnormalities have developed, and in cases where a pregnancy is endangering the life of the mother.
