Case: Planned Parenthood v. Reynolds

On May 15, 2018, a group of plaintiffs — non-profit organizations (Planned Parenthood and Emma Goldman Clinic) offering women’s health care in Iowa, as well as medical practitioners — filed a petition for declaratory judgment and injunctive relief against the state of Iowa, its governor, and the Iowa Board of Medicine, in an Iowa state trial court for Polk County. The plaintiffs were represented by the ACLU as well as private counsel. The complaint challenged an Iowa state abortion law that would ban abortion as soon as a heartbeat was detected (“Detectable Fetal Heartbeat Act” or “Act”). Due to the effect of the Act on early pregnancy, the plaintiffs alleged that the Act effectively banned virtually all abortions in Iowa, in violation of the Iowa Constitution. Specifically, the plaintiffs claimed that the Detectable Fetal Heartbeat Act violated the (1) due process rights of women seeking and obtaining abortions, (2) inalienable rights of persons to liberty, safety and happiness, and (3) rights to equal protection by singling out abortion from all other medical procedures and discriminating against women on the basis of their sex and on the basis of gender stereotypes. The case was assigned to Judge Michael D. Huppert. 

Following a hearing, on June 1, 2018, Judge Huppert granted a temporary injunction while the lawsuit challenging the Act was resolved. The injunction stopped the Act from being enforced while the litigation continued. The injunction did not permanently block the law. 

On June 25, 2018, the defendants filed a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim. Plaintiffs responded on September 24, 2018 with a motion for summary judgment. 

The state trial court ruled on the motions on January 22, 2019, granting the plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment. The court found that it was undisputed that the heartbeat of a fetus was detectable well in advance of the fetus becoming viable. Pointing to state supreme court case law that repeatedly held viability as the threshold against which the state may infringe upon the fundamental right to terminate a pregnancy, the court determined that the Detectable Fetal Heartbeat Act was unconstitutional under the Iowa Constitution. The prohibition of pre-viability abortions violated the due process and equal protection provisions of the state’s constitution. The state of Iowa was permanently enjoined from enforcing the Act. 2019 WL 312072. 

The permanent injunction remained undisturbed for years after litigation. However, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in June 2022 — rejecting the existence of a fundamental constitutional right to abortion — altered the landscape of reproductive freedoms. 

The State of Iowa thus filed a motion to dissolve the permanent injunction granted by the state trial court in 2019, arguing that the Iowa Constitution also was not the source of a fundamental right to an abortion. The defendants contended that since a fundamental right was no longer implicated, laws like Iowa's fetal heartbeat law rationally advanced the state's legitimate interest in the preservation of life. On grounds that the permanent injunction was based on the trial court’s reliance on viability — what was then considered superseded law — the defendants requested the trial court to dissolve the injunction on August 11, 2022. 

The court denied the motion to dissolve the permanent injunction on December 12, 2022. The trial court determined that it did not have jurisdiction to dissolve the permanent injunction on claim preclusion grounds. The court found no case law to support the State’s contention that a permanent injunction being issued based on a finding that a statute was unconstitutional and void at the time it was passed may later be dissolved because of the jurisdiction of the issuing court based on a change in the law. Even if the court had jurisdiction, the court noted that the State of Iowa failed to show that there had been a substantial change in the law under the Iowa Constitution that would change the circumstances, despite changes in federal law. 2022 WL 17885890. 

The State then appealed the decision to the Supreme Court of Iowa on December 14, 2022. The Iowa Supreme Court ruled on June 16, 2023, affirming the trial court’s decision. The Court determined that to take a statute that had been enjoined for four years and to put it into effect would be legislating from the bench. The Court determined that the State’s claim was precluded, and even if the Court had jurisdiction, there were no substantial changes in the law. The Court reaffirmed its longstanding view that it “zealously guard[s] [its] ability to interpret the Iowa Constitution independently of the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Federal Constitution.” The permanent injunction, thus, remained in effect. 2023 WL 4635932. 

The case is now considered closed.