No easy path to high court for abortion suit

Supporters of the nation’s strictest abortion law passed recently in Iowa are hoping a lawsuit filed against it will bring the issue back before the U.S. Supreme Court, but constitutional experts say that’s unlikely because of a legal maneuver by abortionrights groups.

The Iowa affiliates of the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit this week challenging the constitutionality of a law set to go in effect on July 1 that would prohibit most abortions in the state once a fetal heartbeat is detected. That’s around six weeks of pregnancy.

However, the groups filed their complaint in state court in Des Moines, and it focuses on alleged violations of Iowa’s constitution rather than federal constitutional law.

The distinction is important, said Columbia Law School professor Katherine Franke. It complicates the legal avenue for challenging Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that established a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy until a fetus is viable.

“The Iowa Supreme Court is the court of last resort on how to interpret the Iowa Constitution,” she said. “They’re raising it exclusively as a state constitutional issue for obvious reasons. They don’t want to be baited into having this case be the opportunity for the U.S. Supreme Court to revise Roe. It’s a smart strategy.“