One
of the court's seven justices did not take part in the ruling
for an unspecified reason, and the remaining justices deadlocked
3-3. That automatically left in place a 2019 court order
blocking the law.
Governor Kim Reynolds, a Republican, had asked the court to
dissolve the order, which stemmed from a lawsuit by Planned
Parenthood, arguing the law violated the right to privacy and
equal protection under the U.S. Constitution before Roe v. Wade
was overturned in 2022.
"With this ruling, thousands of patients seeking care in the
state and beyond can continue to receive the necessary,
life-saving care that they need," Planned Parenthood President
Alexis McGill Johnson said in a statement.
Chris Schandevel, a lawyer for the governor, said that "Iowans
will surely be disappointed by today's result" and urged the
state's legislature to pass a new abortion ban.
Iowa passed a law banning abortion once a fetal heartbeat is
detected, usually around six weeks, in 2018. The law was blocked
because of the U.S. Supreme Court's longstanding 1973 ruling in
Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed abortion rights nationwide.
The Supreme Court overturned Roe last year, and Reynolds
immediately sought to revive the 2018 law. The trial court judge
said there was no legal mechanism for doing that, and three
Supreme Court justices agreed.
"In our view, it is legislating from the bench to take a statute
that was moribund when it was enacted and has been enjoined for
four years and then to put it into effect," Justice Thomas
Waterman wrote Friday.
Justice Christopher McDonald wrote for the other side that it
was "inequitable to continue to enjoin the state from enforcing
a law that is now presumptively constitutional."
Waterman, McDonald and the non-participating judge, Dana Leanne
Oxley, were all appointed by Republican governors.
(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York, Editing by Alexia
Garamfalvi and Aurora Ellis)
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