Iowa governor's lawyer pushes for 6-week abortion ban

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa judge should allow a law passed in 2018 that bans most abortions to take effect, three years after the measure was ruled unconstitutional, lawyers for Gov. Kim Reynolds argued Friday.

Chris Schandevel, a lawyer for the Republican governor, said Judge Celene Gogerty should set aside a 2019 permanent injunction that prevented Iowa from enforcing a law that would block abortions once cardiac activity can be detected. That is usually around six weeks of pregnancy and before many women know they’re pregnant.

Schandevel said the injunction rests entirely on an Iowa Supreme Court 2018 decision that guaranteed the right to an abortion under the Iowa Constitution and cases decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1992 and 1973 that established abortion rights nationally.

All three cases were overruled this year by more conservative courts and given that, Reynolds' lawyers argued the judge should reverse the injunction and let the 2018 law take effect.

“It would be inequitable to prevent the people of Iowa to have their voices heard through a validly enacted law, enacted as recently as 2018,” he said.

Rita Bettis Austen, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, countered that there is no precedent or legal support in Iowa for a judge to reverse a final judgment entered three years ago,

“This case is closed,” said Bettis Austen, who is representing Planned Parenthood, the state’s leading abortion provider, which challenged the law in court. “Iowa rules of civil procedure clearly govern this type of motion.”

She said the rules only allow a court to vacate a final judgement within a year and do not allow such a reversal for a change in law.

The judge said she would issue a ruling soon.

The case should at least in the short term decide...