Iowa
New abortion ban is challenged in court, a day after it was passed by GOP lawmakers
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A legal challenge was filed Wednesday to block Iowa’s new legislation banning most abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy, launching what will likely be a lengthy and emotional court battle just hours after the Legislature’s late-night vote.
The bill was passed with exclusively Republican support in a rare, one-day legislative burst lasting more than 14 hours. That’s despite the vocal — and sometimes tense — objections from Democratic lawmakers and abortion advocates protesting at the Capitol.
Gov. Kim Reynolds says she will sign the bill, which would take immediate effect, on Friday.
The challenge, filed by the ACLU of Iowa, Planned Parenthood North Central States and the Emma Goldman Clinic, requests that a district court temporarily put the soon-to-be law on hold as the courts assess its constitutionality.
Abortion is currently legal in Iowa up to 20 weeks of pregnancy, but that would change with the stroke of Reynolds’ pen Friday. The new legislation prohibits almost all abortions once cardiac activity can be detected, which is usually around six weeks of pregnancy and before many women know they are pregnant.
Reynolds ordered the rare session after the state Supreme Court declined in June to reinstate a practically identical law that she signed in 2018.
“The Iowa Supreme Court questioned whether this legislature would pass the same law they did in 2018, and today they have a clear answer,” Reynolds said in a statement. “The voices of Iowans and their democratically elected representatives cannot be ignored any longer, and justice for the unborn should not be delayed.”
Planned Parenthood North Central States has said they will refer patients out of state if they’re scheduled for abortions in the next few weeks. The organization, the largest abortion provider in Iowa, will continue to provide care to patients before cardiac activity is detected.
But the organization’s preparations for legal challenges were underway well before the final votes Tuesday.
“The ACLU of Iowa, Planned Parenthood, and the Emma Goldman Clinic remain committed to protecting the reproductive rights of Iowans to control their bodies and their lives, their health, and their safety —including filing a lawsuit to block this reckless, cruel law,” ACLU of Iowa Executive Director Mark Stringer said in a statement.
There are limited circumstances under the measure that would allow for abortion after that point in a pregnancy where cardiac activity is detected — such as rape, if reported to law enforcement or a health provider within 45 days; incest, if reported within 145 days; if the fetus has a fetal abnormality “incompatible with life;” and if the pregnancy is endangering the life of the pregnant woman.
A district court found the 2018 law unconstitutional in 2019 based on rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court and Iowa’s Supreme Court that had affirmed a woman’s fundamental constitutional right to abortion.
After both bodies overturned those rulings last year, the governor sought to reinstate the 2018 law. But the state’s high court deadlocked last month without ruling on the merits of an abortion ban, leaving that law permanently blocked and leaving open the question of how the courts would rule on a new one.
Most Republican-led states have drastically limited abortion access in the year since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and handed authority on abortion law to the states. More than a dozen states have bans with limited exceptions and one state, Georgia, bans abortion after cardiac activity is detected. Several other states have similar restrictions that are on hold pending court rulings.
Washington
Ex-U.S. attorney, who appeared on ‘Survivor,’ runs for attorney general
SEATTLE (AP) — Nick Brown, who recently stepped down as U.S. attorney in Seattle, announced Wednesday he’s running to be Washington’s next attorney general, setting up a contest with state Sen. Manka Dhingra, a longtime prosecutor herself.
Brown, 46, served less than two years as the top federal prosecutor for western Washington before stepping down in June in anticipation of the campaign. He was the state’s first Black U.S. attorney.
The Democrat previously worked as general counsel to Gov. Jay Inslee, as a litigation partner at a prominent Seattle law firm and — in a less common qualification for the job — as a contestant on the second season of the reality show “Survivor,” which aired in 2001.
Dhingra, a Redmond Democrat who serves as deputy majority leader, is the only other candidate so far. She has been a senior deputy prosecutor in King County for the past 20 years and helped train police in crisis intervention.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who gained a national profile by challenging the travel ban and other policies of former President Donald Trump, kicked off an exploratory campaign for governor in May after Inslee said he wouldn’t seek a fourth term.
Dhingra and Brown each said they hope to build on Ferguson’s legacy and would work to crack down on gun violence, protect abortion access and stand up to corporations who take advantage of consumers.
“Under Bob Ferguson’s leadership, more and more people have realized the potential of this office and how it can positively impact people’s lives,” Dhingra said. “It’s important to have the next attorney general who is a fighter, who will stand up for people’s rights and ensure that we are protecting people and taking care of people.”
Brown, a former judge advocate general in the Army, served as Inslee’s general counsel from 2013-17 — a period when the state dealt with complex legal issues that included the governor’s moratorium on the death penalty and the establishment of a pioneering legal marijuana industry. The position gave him insight into the workings of the attorney general’s office, he said.
“What’s really important for this job is to be able to hit the ground running the very first day,” Brown said. “When I was a U.S. attorney, we had 150 employees and a $15 million budget — and I’ve been in charge and led there and led in the governor’s office and led in my time in the Army.”
Brown was an assistant U.S. attorney in Seattle for six years before going to the governor’s office.
Brown said that as U.S. attorney, he sought to combat cybercrime, the fentanyl crisis, gun violence and human trafficking, while also emphasizing civil rights. He has called criminal prosecution a “blunt instrument” and suggested that justice also requires more creative approaches.
Dhingra cited her work on helping to establish veterans and mental health courts; sponsoring laws to ban assault weapons and ghost guns; and working to create strong privacy protections for sensitive reproductive and health care data.
