Iowa’s Supreme Court on Friday allowed a six-week ban on abortion to take effect, one of the latest rulings to restrict abortion access since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision ending federal protections for the procedure.
The measure restricts the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy, the point when fetal cardiac activity can be detected. Planned Parenthood and others had sued to block the law and won a preliminary injunction from a lower court, keeping abortion temporarily legal in the state up until 22 weeks of pregnancy.
The judges ruled 4-3 that the law — passed by the Republican-led legislature in 2023 — is constitutional, reversing a temporary injunction put in place by a district court last year, while allowing the ongoing litigation at that level can proceed.
