A new Iowa law that was resurrected from 2018 bans abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected and has been blocked by a Iowa district court judge, but an appeal has moved forward.

The Iowa Legislature convened for a special session on July 11th and swiftly passed virtually the same bill that was passed and signed into law in 2018, which bans most abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, typically around six weeks. A lawsuit was filed by several “pro choice” organizations to block the new law that was signed by Governor Kim Reynolds later that week following the special session. A district court judge agreed and put a stay on the law, blocking it from taking immediate effect. 

Governor Reynolds was recently in Jefferson and Raccoon Valley Radio asked her about her thoughts of why she wanted to pursue the matter with a special session. She told Raccoon Valley Radio the Iowa Supreme Court ruled on the law before the US Supreme Court reversed Roe v Wade, which no longer gave women the constitutional right to an abortion. She said the state supreme court was also waiting to hear what the US Supreme Court decided.

“And at that point they said the standard was rational basis. So right now we’re undue burden and so we believe that it should be rational basis, based on what happened in the United States Supreme Court, that’s what our court said they were waiting to see what they did, and so now we know and I think it’s time now to move forward.”

Reynolds added that this Republican-controlled legislature passed the new fetal heartbeat bill by even more votes than in 2018, which shows that the law isn’t hypothetical, like what the state supreme court called it in their split decision ruling this past June, following an appeal by Reynolds from the 2018 law. Recently, it was determined in the judicial system that Reynolds new appeal on the most recently signed into law fetal heartbeat bill can move forward.