Abortion remains legal in Iowa after the state Supreme Court on Friday refused to reinstate a law that would have largely banned the procedure. Kim Reynolds and, for now, prevent the conservative state from joining others with strict abortion limits.

In a rare 3-3 split decision, the Iowa Supreme Court upheld a 2019 district court ruling that blocked the law. The latest ruling comes about a year after the same body and the US Supreme Court ruled that women have no fundamental constitutional right to abortion.

The stalled law would ban abortions as soon as heart activity can be detected, usually around six weeks of pregnancy and before many women know they are pregnant.

The law contains

exceptions for medical emergencies

rape, incest and fetal abnormalities.

Writing for the three justices who rejected the state’s request to reinstate the law, Judge Thomas Waterman said granting the request would mean circumventing the legislature, changing the standard for how the court reviews laws, and then a court order is rescinded.

issued by a lower court that blocked the law. In our view, it is legislated from the bench to pass a statute that was moribund when it was enacted and has four years attached to it and then put it into effect, Waterman wrote.

Reynolds signed the 2018 law into law despite state and federal court decisions at the time, including Roe

against Wade

, affirming a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion. Planned Parenthood sued, and a year later a state judge blocked the law. Reynolds did not appeal the decision at the time.

In a separate case, the Iowa Supreme Court last year reversed an opinion that says the state constitution affirms a fundamental right to abortion. Roe was reversed a week later and Reynolds sought to rescind the 2019 decision.

Iowa will not pay for abortions or contraceptives for rape victims

A state judge ruled last year that she had no jurisdiction to do so, and Reynolds appealed to the Supreme Court.

state of Iowa

High Council

The court has seven members, but one judge declined to participate because her former law firm had represented an abortion provider.

All justices were appointed by Republican governors and five were appointed by Reynolds, who expressed disappointment with the court’s ruling. Not only is it ignoring Iowa voters who have elected representatives willing to stand up for the rights of unborn children, but it has sided with a single county judge who struck down Iowa’s legislation based on principles that have now been flatly rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court, Reynolds said in a statement. Reynolds added that the fight is not over. Republicans have large majorities in the Iowa House and Senate, and leaders of both chambers suggested they work to pass new legislation. Ruth Richardson, president and CEO chief executive of Planned Parenthood North Central States, called the decision a huge victory. Every person deserves control over their body, and Iowans have that right, based on today’s court decision, she said in a statement. Abortion bans make pregnancy more dangerous than it already is, and it shouldn’t matter what state you live in. While the state Supreme Court upholds the law, it doesn’t stop Reynolds and lawmakers from passing a new law that looks like the law. the same.

Friday’s decision was largely procedural in the 2022 appeal against the 2019 ruling was overdue. Abortions remain legal in Iowa up to 20 weeks gestation.

Most Republican-led states have severely curtailed access to abortion in the year since the U.S. Supreme Court stripped women’s constitutional right to abortion in Roe v. Wade and transfer authority on the issue to states.

Courts have suspended enforcement of several abortion bans and restrictions while considering whether they are in line with state constitutions, including six that are currently suspended. Six are currently on hold, but final rulings have been made in only a handful of cases since Roe’s retraction of the Dobbs ruling and there’s no clear trend as to how they’re going. a

the state appeals court ruled

last year that an abortion ban that dates back to before Arizona was a state doesn’t apply to doctors, but whether it applies to other helpers is part of an ongoing legal dispute. The South Carolina Supreme Court this year lifted a ban on abortions after heart activity can be detected. However, the state has since passed a new ban, although its enforcement has been paused by a court. Judges in some other states have found bans unconstitutional only in narrow ways. Women are suing Texas for an abortion ban, saying it threatened their lives. The Oklahoma Supreme Court last month passed two state laws banning abortion, but the abortion procedure remains illegal there, with few exceptions, because another ban remains in effect. A federal judge last year barred Idaho from enforcing its medical emergency abortion ban, just after another federal judge made an opposing appeal on a state law in Texas.