By Brendan Pierson
(Reuters) -Iowa’s highest court on Friday ruled that the state’s constitution does not include a “fundamental right” to abortion, reviving a law requiring women to wait 24 hours after an initial appointment before getting an abortion.
The ruling by the Supreme Court of Iowa reversed a lower court ruling blocking the law, which had been challenged by a Planned Parenthood affiliate. It comes as the U.S. Supreme Court is expected in coming weeks to issue a major ruling that could dramatically curtail abortion rights at the national level.
Planned Parenthood and the office of Iowa Attorney General Thomas Miller, which defended the law, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed the 24-hour waiting period law in 2020. The state Supreme Court had struck down an earlier law imposing a 72-hour waiting period in 2017, finding that the state’s constitution included a fundamental right to abortion.
Planned Parenthood argued that the new, shorter waiting period was unconstitutional for the same reason, but the Supreme Court majority on Friday overturned its own earlier decision recognizing a fundamental right.
(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Mark Porter)
