Politics

Iowa Supreme Court Blocks Law Requiring Women To Wait 72 Hours Before Aborting

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The Iowa Supreme Court blocked a law Friday requiring women to wait at least 72 hours before aborting their unborn babies, ruling that doing so is unconstitutional and imposes an undue burden on women.

The ruling comes after a district court ruled to uphold the waiting period in September. That ruling did not stick however, because the Supreme Court blocked the law from being implemented until the state’s high court could rule on whether to uphold or reject the waiting period.

The debate began when Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit May 15 seeking to strike down the 72 hour waiting period. Before the Supreme Court’s Friday ruling, women in Iowa had to make multiple visits to the clinic before having an abortion in order to adhere to the law.

“Iowa has chosen to impose more severe burdens on women who choose abortion than almost all other states in violation of both the Iowa Constitution and federal law,” ACLU attorney Alice Clapman said during court arguments in an effort to sway to court to reject the waiting period, Talking Points Memo reports.

The court’s ruling comes after pro-life group “Save The 1” filed a June 19 lawsuit asking the state to remove exceptions from its “Fetal Heartbeat” law that bans abortion where a heartbeat can be detected.  A heartbeat typically manifests at about six weeks into a pregnancy.

The lawsuit also follows another suit filed by Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) against Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds and the Iowa Board of Medicine in an attempt to strike down Iowa’s law banning abortion after 6 weeks.

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