Iowa abortion providers dismiss legal challenge against state’s strict law now that it’s in effect

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa abortion providers opted to dismiss their lawsuit against the state Thursday, forgoing a continued legal battle after the Iowa Supreme Court upheld the state’s strict abortion law and reiterated that there is no constitutional right to an abortion in the state.

Iowa’s law prohibiting most abortions after about six weeks, before many women know they are pregnant, went into effect on July 29. Abortion had been legal in Iowa up to 20 weeks of pregnancy.

More than a dozen states across the country have tightened abortion access in the two years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

The Iowa law was passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature in a special session last year, but a legal challenge was immediately filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, Planned Parenthood North Central States and the Emma Goldman Clinic. The law was in effect for just a few days before a district judge temporarily blocked it, a decision Gov. Kim Reynolds appealed to the state’s high court.

The Iowa Supreme Court’s 4-3 ruling in June reiterated that there is no constitutional right to an abortion in the state and ordered the hold to be lifted.

The lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed Thursday, putting an end, at least for now, to years of legal challenges. And while Planned Parenthood had been fighting the law, they were still preparing for it by shoring up abortion access in neighboring states and drawing on the lessons learned where bans went into effect more swiftly.

In a statement Thursday, Planned Parenthood said the organization seized “every opportunity in the courts” to continue providing the same level of abortion access. But “the heartbreaking reality is that continuing this case at this moment would not improve or expand access to care,” said Ruth Richardson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States.

“We remain focused on providing abortion care to Iowans within the new restrictions, and helping those who are now forced to travel across state lines access the care and resources they need to have control over their bodies, lives, and futures,” she said in a statement.

In states with restrictions, the main abortion options are getting pills via telehealth or underground networks and traveling, vastly driving up demand in states with more access.

The conclusion marks a victory for Iowa’s Republican leaders and advocates opposed to abortion, many of whom expressed relief from the high court’s decision in June after decades of operating under Roe. Gov. Kim Reynolds lauded the ruling, saying at the time that the justices finally “upheld the will of the people of Iowa.”