DES MOINES, IOWA (November 8, 2023) — Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird has taken action to defend the State’s Heartbeat Law in the Iowa Supreme Court, which protects unborn life once a doctor can detect a baby’s heartbeat.
In July, Governor Kim Reynolds called a special session to pass the Heartbeat Law and defend unborn life — and did so with an even larger majority than in 2018. But before Gov Reynolds had even signed the Heartbeat Bill into law, Planned Parenthood and other abortion-providers sued to stop it from going into effect. The Polk County District Court then blocked the law from being enforced.
AG Bird filed an appeal to uphold the law, and the Iowa Supreme Court agreed to hear the appeal.
"No right is more valuable than the right to life," said AG Bird. "Each day, innocent, unborn lives are lost to abortion. We know that every moment counts when it comes to protecting the unborn and are working diligently to ensure the Heartbeat Law is upheld. I’m confident that the law is on our side, and we will continue fighting to defend the right to life in court."
The brief makes the case that the Heartbeat Law is constitutional. It urges the Iowa Supreme Court to reject Planned Parenthood’s argument that Iowa law requires the exact legal test that the US Supreme Court rejected in Dobbs just last year. The brief also argues that abortion-providers cannot sue at all, given that there is no constitutional right to provide abortions.
Read the full brief here.
