Biden Calls Iowa Abortion Law 'Dangerous' Following State Supreme Court Decision
President Joe Biden criticized the Iowa abortion law upheld by the state’s Supreme Court in a decision on June 28, stating that the strict measure puts women's health and lives in "jeopardy."
On Friday, the Iowa Supreme Court ordered a lower court to dissolve an injunction blocking the law, which enforces a six-week abortion ban once a fetal heartbeat is detected, with exceptions for rape, incest, and threats to the mother's life.
President Biden labeled the law as "extreme and dangerous." He also condemned the spread of state-level restrictions on reproductive health services, including in-vitro fertilization and contraception, following the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade.
"This should never happen in America. Yet, this is exactly what is happening in states across the country since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade," President Biden said in a written statement from the White House.
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Justice Matthew McDermott, writing for the majority, justified the law as consistent with Iowa's "legitimate interest" in protecting unborn life. "We conclude that the fetal heartbeat statute is rationally related to the state’s legitimate interest in protecting unborn life," he wrote.
Lawyers for Iowa argued that the state has a "vital interest in protecting unborn human life at all stages of development," contending that the injunction imposed by Polk County District Court Judge Joseph Seidlin undermines this interest, "ignores recent developments in state and federal law, and misapplies this court’s recent abortion precedents."
The majority of the Iowa Supreme Court agreed. Justice McDermott's opinion stated that abortion is not a fundamental right under the state’s constitution, meaning state officials only need to show a rational basis for the statute.
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He noted that the state aims to respect and preserve prenatal life, maternal health and safety, and eliminate "particularly gruesome or barbaric medical procedures."
"As a result, Planned Parenthood’s substantive due process challenge fails. The district court thus erred in granting the temporary injunction," Justice McDermott wrote.
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