Opinion: Court keeps Kim Reynolds, lawmakers out of personal health decisions on abortion
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In 2019, when an Iowa district court permanently enjoined the six-week abortion ban in Senate File 359, the court protected women’s right to access health care, including abortion services, in early pregnancy without interference from the government. The year before, Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Cady wrote for a majority that "autonomy and dominion over one’s body go to the very heart of what it means to be free."
On Friday, the Iowa Supreme Court denied Gov. Kim Reynolds and the Iowa Legislature the right to make personal, life-defining decisions for women. Three justices stood with the people of Iowa with a vote that will allow the people and their doctors to be at the helm of their own decisions about pregnancy. The government should keep out of the way of health care, and out of the exam room. Women and their physicians can make the medical decisions that are the safest and most appropriate for their unique needs.
More: Iowa Supreme Court deadlocks 3-3 on 'fetal heartbeat' abortion ban. It won't go into effect.
Three justices would have removed this freedom for Iowans, denying them the opportunity to make decisions about their own bodies, their health, and when and if to parent. Because of the 3-3 tie, a decision by a district judge in December declining to let the six-week ban take effect stands as the final word on the subject of that law.
The state motto of Iowa is “Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain.” Today, we ask that the state of Iowa will continue to strive to maintain the rights and liberties of patients and their providers to make their own health care decisions in a way that affirms their individual medical, social, economic, psychological, and spiritual well-being. We emphatically support the rights of patients to choose the medical care that is best for them and help them access evidence-based health care without interference from the government.
This essay was submitted by doctors who are part of Iowans for Health Liberty: Emily Boevers, M.D., Andrea Greiner, M.D., Jami Maxon, M.D., Jill Meadows, M.D., and Francesca Turner, D.O.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Opinion: Keep Kim Reynolds out of personal choices on abortion
