In a landmark decision Friday, the Iowa Supreme Court declared the state’s stringent abortion law legal, instructing a lower court to lift a temporary block.
The Iowa Supreme Court has reversed a lower-court ruling that put a temporary block on the state’s strict abortion law.
The ruling means most abortions are now illegal in Iowa after six weeks of pregnancy following the Court’s decision Friday.
The 4-3 decision is a significant victory for Republican lawmakers, positioning Iowa alongside more than a dozen states with restrictive abortion laws following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade.
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 abortion bans, and three restrict abortions at around six weeks.
In its majority opinion, the Iowa Supreme Court reiterated that there is no constitutional right to abortion.
