All about the Iowa Supreme Court's abortion ruling
July 1 "Capitol Week" is online
A couple of quick announcements: I’m excited to join a new group effort from the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative.
Julie Gammack explained the concept: “Political commentators with a long career in broadcast news, political reporting and commentary, will discuss what is going on in Iowa today. The podcast will be produced twice a month, and then in September through November, it will be held weekly.”
You can subscribe to the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative Politics Panel here. All content will be available for free. However, we are accepting donations to compensate us for the work involved.
Also, syndicated radio host and podcaster Arnie Arnesen has been inviting me on her show once a month. We’re recording a segment Tuesday morning about the Iowa Supreme Court giving the green light to our state’s near-total abortion ban. It should be released on her website and podcast platforms (The Attitude with Arnie Arnesen) soon after.
Finally, a reminder that if you would like to receive occasional emails linking to everything recently published at Bleeding Heartland, please subscribe to my other free newsletter. The next edition will include several guest author takes on the presidential debate and the Iowa Supreme Court’s abortion ruling, as well as a lovely wildflower post by Katie Byerly.
On to the radio show. June is often a slow time in Iowa political news, but not last week! Maybe the universe knew somehow that Dennis Hart would be reprising his role as co-host while Spencer Dirks enjoys some vacation time in Okoboji. Dennis and I hardly ever had a slow news week in the three-plus years we worked on the program together.
The audio from Monday night’s show is at the top of this message. Other ways to listen: subscribe to “KHOI’s Capitol Week” on your favorite podcast platform, or tell your smart speaker to play the show. Our full archive (going back to February 2021) is available on KHOI’s website.
We didn’t cover as many topics this week as we did during the legislative session, so we were able to go deep on the biggest stories:
Of course we began with the Iowa Supreme Court’s 4-3 decision from Friday, which will allow the state to prohibit almost all legal abortions. You can read the opinion and dissents here, and my analysis here;
This ruling does not immediately end the lawsuit Planned Parenthood of the Heartland and the Emma Goldman Clinic brought against the law Republicans enacted in July 2023. However, it will be very difficult for the plaintiffs to succeed on their other constitutional claims in district court now that the Iowa Supreme Court majority has said abortion regulations are subject to “rational basis” review (a very low bar for the government to clear);
Chief Justice Susan Christensen’s dissenting opinion was a must-read. Dennis and I only had time to share a few snippets, but I published more excerpts over the weekend;
Justice Edward Mansfield’s dissenting opinion was even more surprising, because he wrote the Iowa Supreme Court’s majority opinion from 2022, which overturned the abortion rights precedent from 2018. We didn’t have time during the show to get into methods of legal analysis, but I was stunned to see the court’s leading “originalist” write that Iowans have a substantive due process right to terminate a pregnancy, and that originalism “has its limits when considering a woman’s rights relating to her body, sex, and procreation”;
For now, abortion remains legal until about 20 weeks, because it takes at least 21 days for the Iowa Supreme Court to refer cases back to the District Court level. But sometime around July 19 or soon after, a Polk County judge will lift the injunction on the abortion ban, and abortion will become almost inaccessible in-state;
The state’s main abortion providers (Planned Parenthood North Central States and the Emma Goldman Clinic in Iowa City) told reporters on Friday afternoon that they’ve been preparing for this possibility for a long time. Both will comply with the law. Their clinics will offer other services (contraception, well-woman care, etc.) and will perform abortions if no embryonic cardiac activity can be detected, but few people will learn they are pregnant in time to obtain an abortion in Iowa;
Planned Parenthood navigators will help patients schedule appointments and deal with logistics in getting to their nearby clinics in Minnesota and Omaha, Nebraska; the Emma Goldman Clinic will primarily be referring patients to Illinois. The Iowa Abortion Access Fund just announced a new partnership with the Chicago Abortion Fund to help Iowans obtain reproductive health care in Illinois;
We summarized political reaction to the ruling, starting with statements released by Governor Kim Reynolds, Iowa Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver, House Speaker Pat Grassley, and Attorney General Brenna Bird;
Top Iowa Democrats told reporters on Friday that the Supreme Court ruling would be devastating for women. (The Des Moines Register compiled many of their comments.) It’s clear that every Democrat running for Congress or the state legislature will make abortion a central issue of their campaigns this fall;
I haven’t heard any speculation about Republican legislators passing more restrictions on reproductive health care next year, but it’s certainly possible. State Auditor Rob Sand warned on Friday that the GOP will come after contraception, IVF, or surrogacy next. He pointed to Bird’s comment that “there is work left to be done”;
Moving to other news: on Tuesday, the Iowa Utilities Board approved Summit Carbon Solutions’ application for a CO2 pipeline, using eminent domain to seize property from landowners who have not signed voluntary easements;
It’s not clear when construction will start, because two Iowa Utilities Board members determined that can’t happen until Summit Carbon gains approval in North Dakota and South Dakota. Board chair Erik Helland dissented from that part of the board’s decision;
Another condition of the application: Summit Carbon will need to obtain a $100 million insurance policy;
Eminent domain has been a hot topic in the legislature, and 30 Republican lawmakers signed a statement criticizing the Iowa Utilities Board’s action last week. House Speaker Grassley vowed that the legislature will take up eminent domain bills next year. I don’t see that effort going anywhere in the Iowa Senate;
I anticipate multiple lawsuits challenging the use of eminent domain for a CO2 pipeline. There may also be litigation surrounding the water use permits for carbon capture facilities that need to be built near the ethanol plants that are partnering with Summit Carbon;
Incidentally, nearly 100 Iowa Democrats signed a statement condemning the Iowa Utilities Board’s decision, but top party leaders weren’t involved with that;
We caught up with some news related to the state’s response to widespread flooding across northwest and northern Iowa;
State Auditor Sand had scheduled a bunch of town hall meetings in northwest Iowa for this past week, but he canceled them all and has been pitching in with cleanup efforts in hard-hit areas like Spencer;
We talked briefly about Thursday night’s debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. Current Democratic office-holders in Iowa have not spoken publicly about the debate, but former Senator Tom Harkin has called for Biden to step aside. Some other prominent Democrats (including John Norris and Jackie Norris) seem to be leaning that way;
Governor Reynolds wrote to Acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Julie Su on Monday to complain about the federal government’s enforcement of child labor laws. Some small businesses in Iowa are facing very large fines. I’m less sympathetic, because the feds warned Iowa officials and business owners last year that they planned to “vigorously enforce” child labor standards;
Finally, Dennis asked me about rumors that Reynolds won’t seek re-election in 2026. If that happens, many Iowa politics watchers see Sand and Bird as the front-runners for the Democratic and GOP nominations for governor.
Thanks for reading or listening, and have a safe and happy Fourth of July! Spencer Dirks and I will be back on July 8 to talk about the week in Iowa politics.
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