Opinion: Iowa's longstanding definition of 'liberty' is under attack
Autonomy and dominion over one’s body go to the very heart of what it means to be free.
At stake in this case is the right to shape, for oneself, without unwarranted governmental intrusion, one’s own identity, destiny and place in the world. Nothing could be more fundamental to the notion of liberty.
We therefore hold, under the Iowa Constitution, that implicit in the concept of ordered liberty is the ability to decide whether to continue or terminate a pregnancy.
— Planned Parenthood of the Heartland v. Reynolds ex rel. State, 915 N.W.2d 206, 237 (Iowa 2018)
In writing for a 5-2 majority, the late Chief Justice Mark Cady, an appointee of Gov. Terry Branstad, found the right to choose an abortion to be fundamental under the Iowa Constitution. That judgment has important consequences when national Republicans have packed the U.S. Supreme Court.
The United States has two levels of government: state and federal. Each has its own executive, legislative and judicial branch. And each has its own constitution.
In this system, the federal government sets the floor on rights. No state can, for example, give its citizens fewer rights to carry guns than the Second Amendment grants.
But states are allowed to have laws or constitutions that give their citizens greater rights to carry guns than the Second Amendment grants. Iowa is one such state.
Iowa’s Constitution grants Iowa’s citizens more rights than does the federal Constitution in other respects, too. For example, Iowa’s Constitution declares that: “All men and women are, by nature, free and equal, and have certain inalienable rights — among which are those of enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing and protecting property, and pursuing and obtaining safety and happiness.” (Article 1, Section 1.)
“All laws of a general nature shall have a uniform operation; the general assembly shall not grant to any citizen, or class of citizens, privileges or immunities, which, upon the same terms shall not equally belong to all citizens.” (Article 1, Section 6.)
“[N]o person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” (Article 1, Section 9.)
Through our Constitution, Iowans have made powerful statements about our state’s commitment to equality before the law. The Iowa Supreme Court continued to affirm that bedrock principle by recognizing that nothing is more fundamental to freedom than the ability to shape one’s own destiny.
Iowa Republicans don’t like that outcome. Led by Gov. Kim Reynolds, they made their case before the Republican-majority Iowa Supreme Court that our state’s commitment to equality and liberty excluded women’s ability to control their own bodies. They lost.
Unfortunately for Iowa, Republicans did not stop when they found that their positions were incompatible with our state’s guarantees of liberty. Instead of accepting the adjudication of a fair system, they sought to make the system less fair and more partisan.
In their quest to limit women’s right to self-determination, state Republicans first unbalanced our once-model, nonpartisan judicial appointment system by giving the governor more influence. Now they hope to amend the Iowa Constitution to deny women this fundamental freedom.
This outcome is especially distressing in light of the ruling these legislators are trying to overturn. After finding that the right to abortion is fundamental, the court made further powerful pronouncements about women’s rights and freedom: “Disparate treatment and relegation of women to a subject sex may no longer be accomplished through the proxy of role differentiation.” “Liberty and equality are intertwined." “Autonomy is the great equalizer.”
Cady truly captured Iowa’s commitment to liberty. Our state motto is “Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain.”
The court recognized that women are people and that women own their own bodies. Why would freedom-loving Iowans ever amend our Constitution to take rights away?
For that is what Republicans are trying to take away. Autonomy. Equality. Liberty.
Kelcey Patrick-Ferree and Shannon Patrick live in Iowa City.
This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Opinion: Iowa's longstanding definition of 'liberty' is under attack
