The Iowa District Court for Polk County Monday upheld a permanent injunction on S.F. 359, a 2018 law restricting abortion at about six weeks, once an abdominal ultrasound can detect fetal cardiac activity.

District Judge Celene Gogerty ruled that no specific rule exists to dissolve permanent injunctions under the Iowa Rules of Civil Procedure or the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and Iowa failed to prove that “the court has any inherent authority to dissolve the permanent injunction.”

Gogerty also ruled that there has not been “a change in the law that would warrant dissolving the permanent injunction” under controlling Iowa law. In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey and ruled that “the standard of review for abortion regulations would be rational basis.” However, Gogerty noted that the Iowa Supreme Court has “consistently” defended its right to “interpret the Iowa Constitution independently of the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Federal Constitution.”

In June 2022, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled there is no “fundamental right to abortion subjecting abortion regulation to strict scrutiny under Iowa’s Constitution.” However, the court established Casey‘s undue burden test as the new “governing standard” of review for abortion regulations in Iowa. Evaluated under the undue burden test, Gogerty ruled that the state cannot show a substanial change in law.

Planned Parenthood of the Heartland originally challenged the law in 2018, and, under ruling constitutional law at the time, obtained a permanent injunction on January 22, 2019. After the US Supreme Court overturned Roe and Casey, Iowan authorities challenged the 2019 injunction, arguing that substantial changes in law justify “the dissolution of the existing permanent injunction because no right to an abortion exists under Iowa’s Constitution or the federal constitution.”

Governor Kim Reynolds vowed to appeal the decision.