The Iowa Supreme Court Friday held in Planned Parenthood v. Reynolds that abortion is not a fundamental right under the state constitution. The decision overturns a 2018 ruling which held there is a fundamental right to abortion in Iowa. Planned Parenthood sued to challenge a 2020 law which requires a 24 hour waiting period before an abortion. According to the Guttmacher Institute, waiting periods increase the “cost and risk” of abortion.

After a lower court ruled the law was unconstitutional, Iowa appealed to the state supreme court. Justice Edward Mansfield noted that the opinion only holds “that the Iowa Constitution is not the source of a fundamental right to an abortion necessitating a strict scrutiny standard of review for regulations affecting that right.” Although the court rejects “the proposition that there is a fundamental right to an abortion in Iowa’s Constitution subjecting abortion regulation to strict scrutiny, we do not at this time decide what constitutional standard should replace it.”

Chief Justice Susan Christensen dissented and wrote:

This rather sudden change in a significant portion of our court’s composition is exactly the sort of situation that challenges so many of the values that stare decisis promotes concerning stability in the law, judicial restraint, the public’s faith in the judiciary, and the legitimacy of judicial review.

The court’s ruling comes as Americans wait for a US Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The decision could overturn Roe v. Wade.