Iowa’s Supreme Court tells lower court to let strict abortion law go into effect

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Supreme Court said Friday the state’s strict abortion law is legal, telling a lower court to dissolve a temporary block on the law and allowing Iowa to ban most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy — before many women know they are pregnant.

The 4-3 ruling is a win for Republican lawmakers, and Iowa joins more than a dozen other states with restrictive abortion laws following the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.

The instructions to the lower court will be formally sent in 21 days and, for now, abortion remains legal in Iowa up to 20 weeks of pregnancy. It is unclear how long the district court would take to act after that point.

Currently, 14 states have near-total bans at all stages of pregnancy and three ban abortions at about six weeks.

The Iowa Supreme Court’s majority reiterated on Friday that there is no constitutional right to abortion. As the state requested, they instructed courts to assess whether the government has a legitimate interest in restricting the procedure, rather than whether there is too heavy a burden for people seeking abortion access.

In writing the majority’s opinion, Justice Matthew McDermott wrote that a right to an abortion is “not rooted at all in our state’s history and tradition.” In fact, the majority determined it was the opposite.

“The state’s interest in protecting the unborn can be traced to Iowa’s earliest days,” he wrote.

But Chief Justice Susan Christensen emphatically delivered a dissent, writing that the majority opinion “strips Iowa women of their bodily autonomy.”

Christensen countered McDermott, saying the majority’s “rigid approach relies heavily on the male-dominated history and traditions of the 1800s” and said the Iowa Constitution was not written to reflect the full and equal rights of women.

The ruling previews the ending of a yearslong legal battle over abortion restrictions in Iowa that escalated in 2022 when the Iowa Supreme Court and then the U.S. Supreme Court both overturned decisions establishing a constitutional right to abortion.

In the Iowa State Capitol rotunda, Maggie DeWitte, executive director of Pulse Life Advocates, said she's been working for 25 years to reach this moment.

“Today is celebration for life for moms, for babies and for the entire state,” she said. “To think now that we will finally have protection for children is really hard to put into words.”

Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds immediately released a celebratory statement Friday morning.

“I’m glad that the Iowa Supreme Court has upheld the will of the people of Iowa,” she said.

The Iowa law passed with exclusively Republican support in an one-day special session last July. A legal challenge was filed the next day by the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, Planned Parenthood North Central States and the Emma Goldman Clinic.

The law was in effect for a few days before a district court judge put it on pause, a decision that Reynolds appealed.

At the time, Planned Parenthood North Central States said it stayed open late and made hundreds of phone calls to prepare patients amid the uncertainty, rescheduling abortion appointments in other states for those who wanted. Court filings showed Iowa clinics had several hundred abortion appointments scheduled over two weeks last July, with most past the six-week mark in their pregnancies.

Since then, Planned Parenthood has ceased abortion services in two Iowa cities, including one in Des Moines. The other Des Moines location doesn’t currently have the capacity to serve patients seeking an abortion, so abortion medication and the procedure are being offered about 36 miles (59 kilometers) north in Ames.

On Friday, Iowa abortion providers said they will continue to operate within the confines of the law. While it is not clear when in late July the injunction will be dissolved, Planned Parenthood North Central States and Emma Goldman Clinic representatives both said they would schedule as many appointments as possible before that point.

Ruth Richardson, president and CEO of PPNCS, also said the organization has spent the last year making “long-term regional investments” in preparation for this outcome, including expanding facilities in Mankato, Minnesota, and in Omaha, Nebraska.

“We stand ready to connect Iowans with the essential health care they so desperately need, even if that means traveling out of state,” she said.

Abortion access stands to be a major issue in the 2024 election across the country, and the issue was a key point of contention in Thursday's presidential debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. Biden weighed in Friday on the ruling in Iowa, saying “this should never happen in America.” It remains to be seen whether the decision will turn the tide in an increasingly red Iowa.

There are limited circumstances under the Iowa law that would allow for abortion after six weeks of pregnancy: rape, if reported to law enforcement or a health provider within 45 days; incest, if reported within 145 days; if the fetus has a fetal abnormality “incompatible with life”; or if the pregnancy is endangering the life of the patient. The state’s medical board recently defined rules for how doctors should adhere to the law.

Still, details from the board on enforcement were more limited. The rules do not outline how the board would determine noncompliance or what the appropriate disciplinary action might be.

Also missing was additional guidance on just how imminent risks to the pregnant women must be before doctors can intervene, a question vexing physicians across the country, especially after the Texas Supreme Court denied a pregnant woman with life-threatening complications access to abortion. While the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday cleared the way for emergency abortions in Idaho, the court stopped short of issuing broader rulings.

Emily Boevers, an obstetrician gynecologist practicing in rural Iowa who advocates for abortion access, questioned how far women will suffer before they are provided life-saving care.

“I hope that our governor will be available by telephone to take the calls wondering if we pass that line where patients are deadly ill and we can perform life-saving care for her,” she said Friday. “Our patients will suffer.”

The national flag flies in front of the Iowa Supreme Court building, Friday, June 28, 2024, in Des Moines, Iowa. The court on Friday said the state's strict abortion law is legal and told a lower court to dissolve a temporary block on the law. (AP Photo/Scott McFetridge)

FILE - Anti-abortion activists hold signs during a March for Life rally, Jan. 21, 2023, across from the Emma Goldman Clinic in Iowa City, Iowa. The Iowa Supreme Court reversed a lower court ruling that put a temporary block on the state’s strict abortion law, Friday, June 28, 2024, and is telling the lower court to let the law take effect. The new law bans most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy and before many women know they are pregnant. (Joseph Cress /Iowa City Press-Citizen via AP, File)

FILE - The Iowa Judicial Branch Building is shown, June 16, 2023, in Des Moines, Iowa. The Iowa Supreme Court reversed a lower court ruling that put a temporary block on the state’s strict abortion law, Friday, June 28, 2024, and is telling the lower court to let the law take effect. The new law bans most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy and before many women know they are pregnant. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

FILE - Abortion-rights protesters cheer at a rally, June 24, 2022, in Des Moines, Iowa. The Iowa Supreme Court reversed a lower court ruling that put a temporary block on the state’s strict abortion law, Friday, June 28, 2024, and is telling the lower court to let the law take effect. The new law bans most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy and before many women know they are pregnant. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

FILE - Pastor Michael Shover of Christ the Redeemer Church in Pella, left, argues with Ryan Maher, of Des Moines, as protestors voice opposition to a new ban on abortion after roughly six weeks of pregnancy introduced by Republican lawmakers in a special session in Des Moines, Iowa, July 11, 2023. The Iowa Supreme Court is expected to weigh in on the state’s temporarily blocked abortion law, which prohibits abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy and before many women know they are pregnant on Friday, June 27, 2024. (Zach Boyden-Holmes/The Des Moines Register via AP, File)

MILWAUKEE (AP) — A spokesman for the Milwaukee Brewers said Sunday the team “was in the process of reaching out” to the 11 people injured after an American Family Field escalator malfunctioned.

Tyler Barnes, the senior vice president of communications and affiliate operations for the Brewers, said all the escalators other than the one that malfunctioned were operating Sunday after getting inspected overnight.

The Brewers announced Saturday that five people were treated at the stadium and six others went to area hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries.

“All of the escalators in the ballpark were thoroughly inspected overnight by our service provider and were declared safe for use today,” Barnes said in a statement. “Escalators are inspected regularly as part of our service agreement and preventative maintenance is performed as scheduled.”

The malfunction occurred as spectators were going from the terrace to the loge level of the stadium after the Brewers’ 5-3 loss to the Chicago Cubs. The Brewers said the escalator went at a faster downward speed than usual.

Barnes said the Brewers were reaching out to those injured “to check on their condition and express our best wishes for a complete and speedy recovery.”

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FILE - American Family Field is pictured on Sept. 15, 2023, in Milwaukee. Multiple people were injured Saturday, June 29, 2024, when an escalator malfunctioned at the ballpark following the Brewers' loss to the Chicago Cubs, a team official said. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)