WacoTrib By DAVID PITT 1/22/2019
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A state judge on Tuesday struck down Iowa's restrictive "fetal heartbeat" abortion law, which would have been the most restrictive anti-abortion law in the nation.
Judge Michael Huppert found the law unconstitutional, concluding that the Iowa Supreme Court's earlier decisions that affirm a woman's fundamental right to an abortion would include the new law passed last year
He also cited several cases in federal court, including decisions in 2015 and 2016 in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that indicated such abortion laws were unconstitutional.
Huppert said prohibiting abortions at the detection of a fetal heartbeat violates "both the due process and equal protection provisions of the Iowa Constitution as not being narrowly tailored to serve the compelling state interest of promoting potential life."
The law would ban an abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected. That can happen as early as six weeks into pregnancy.
The legal challenge by abortion providers Planned Parenthood of the Heartland and the Emma Goldman Clinic had halted it from taking effect last July.
"I am incredibly disappointed in today's court ruling, because I believe that if death is determined when a heart stops beating, then a beating heart indicates life," Gov. Kim Reynolds said in a statement.
She signed the bill into law in May 2018.
More:
https://www.wacotrib.com/news/ap_nation/judge-declares-iowa-fetal-heartbeat-law-unconstitutional/article_9d2ef57d-69af-50ac-aa1e-db609a119025.html