Iowa abortion providers say no basis to enact near ban

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Lawyers for Iowa’s largest abortion provider argued in court documents Tuesday that there's no precedent or legal support for bringing back a law banning most abortions, which a judge had permanently blocked in 2019.

Planned Parenthood's lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa were responding in state court filings to arguments made by lawyers for Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds last month.

Reynolds contends that recent decisions by both the Iowa and U.S. Supreme Court have changed the legal landscape, and states must individually decide whether abortion is legal. The governor says these changes justify reversing a state court judge's decision that the abortion ban law was unconstitutional — and therefore unenforceable. Reynolds did not appeal the decision at the time.

The judge based his opinion on U.S. Supreme Court precedent, as well as an Iowa Supreme Court decision in 2018 that declared abortion a fundamental right under the Iowa Constitution.

The 2018 law would block abortions once cardiac activity can be detected, usually around six weeks of pregnancy and before many women know they’re pregnant. The law contains exceptions for medical emergencies including threats to the mother’s life, rape, incest, and fetal abnormality.

Current Iowa law bans abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Abortions up to that point remain legal in the state.

ACLU lawyers argue there is no precedent to reverse a case finalized years ago. They said that in Iowa, even though the state Supreme Court removed the fundamental abortion protections in its June decision, abortion remains legal under earlier court decisions that have not been reversed.

ACLU of Iowa Legal Director Rita Bettis Austen said the governor’s recourse should be to go back to the...