We Are One Step Closer To Living In Sam Alito's America
The impact of Dobbs continues.
The post-Dobbs hits just keep on coming for advocates of reproductive freedom. Despite the popularity of choice and the repercussions on maternal and infant mortality, another state will enact a six-week abortion ban.
On Friday, the Iowa Supreme Court issued a 4-3 ruling holding the state’s six-week abortion ban — that was passed in rushed one-day session last year — can go into effect (a lower court had issued a temporary injunction). The majority held there was no right to an abortion in the state — mimicking Samuel Alito’s flawed historical approach, saying abortion is “not rooted at all in our state’s history and tradition.”
In what’s becoming an all-too-familiar dissenting sentiment, Chief Justice Susan Christensen wrote, “Today, our court’s majority strips Iowa women of their bodily autonomy by holding that there is no fundamental right to terminate a pregnancy under our state constitution. I cannot stand by this decision.” Christensen went on to slam the majority’s “rigid approach relies heavily on the male-dominated history and traditions of the 1800s.”
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And the Iowa law’s limited exceptions provide little hope for the women of Iowa, as reported by Jezebel:
Iowa’s ban offers some exceptions under limited, cruel conditions. The law allows abortion services for rape victims who report their rape to law enforcement within 45 days (even as rape is very rarely reported to police), as well as incest if it’s reported within 145 days, or if the fetus has an abnormality incompatible with life, or the pregnancy endangers the patient’s life.
Iowa makes the 18th state to enact a ban on abortion at six weeks or earlier.
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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @[email protected].
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