Special Session
To the surprise of virtually no one, Gov. Kim Reynolds yesterday called for a special session of the Iowa General Assembly…it will be held this coming Tuesday, July 11, with the sole purpose of enacting legislation to address abortion in the state.
The move was triggered by last month’s Iowa Supreme Court ruling that said, as a procedural matter, the court would not dissolve an injunction that had kept a so-called heartbeat bill passed in 2018 from taking effect. Essentially, the court said that the then-existing standards approved by the Iowa Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court supported the injunction…and there was no mechanism to go back on a closed case file just because both of those high courts overturned past decisions.
That Supreme Court path was always a legal longshot. Legislative leaders and the governor all said they would not pass a new bill restricting abortion until the state supreme court had ruled, in case there was direction of how to proceed.
Fair enough. But since to my thinking the latest state supreme court ruling was only on process and not the merits…there was no guidance. So no doubt the same heartbeat bill passed five years ago will be introduced, with very likely the same result and signature by the governor before the day is out.
That won’t please pro-abortion folks on the left…but the federal and state supreme court rulings are what they are…and even with that backdrop, pro-life Republicans increased their majorities in the statehouse in Des Moines last November. So how can we expect anything else to happen?
Those who care about money will say this could wait six months, until the next legislative session. Others will note that it is impossible to put a price on the value of the human lives to be saved by this law going into effect sooner.
It will be passed, without question…you don’t call this type of special session unless you’re sure. And it will be signed into law. And it will immediately be challenged.
Nationally, abortion is lining up to be a key 2024 issue. We’ll see about Iowa, since the will of the people from 2022 is about to be done. Hard to believe there’d be that much of a voter flip in such a short time.
