Source: http://talkmedianews.com/supreme-court-of-the-united-states/2018/05/03/iowa-gop-lawmakers-nations-strictest-abortion-measure-will-lead-to-roe-v-wade-being-overturned/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 14:01:41+00:00

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WASHINGTON – Iowa Republicans who approved the nation’s strictest abortion measure predict it will trigger a legal battle that ultimately leads to the Supreme Court’s overturning Roe v. Wade.
The bill, approved by the state’s GOP-controlled legislature Wednesday, would outlaw almost all abortions when a fetal heartbeat can be detected. A fetus’s heartbeat can typically be detected at just six weeks, often before a woman even knows she is pregnant.
The so-called “fetal heartbeat” bill, which had already received approval by the House of Representatives, now goes to Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, an abortion opponent, who has not said if she will sign it into law. “Governor Reynolds is 100 percent pro-life and will never stop fighting for the unborn,” a spokeswoman said after the vote.
GOP lawmakers exulted after the Senate approved the bill, 29-17, and said they eagerly awaited a legal battle that they predicted would culminate with the Supreme Court’s overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision granting women the constitutional right to have an abortion.
“We created an opportunity to take a run at Roe v. Wade — 100 percent,” Republican state Senator Rick Bertrand told fellow lawmakers after the vote.
Bertrand and other Republicans in the Iowa Legislature said they’re hopeful Roe v. Wade will be overturned with the Supreme Court’s conservative shift since President Donald Trump’s appointee, Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, joined the high court.
But the Supreme Court has declined to take up states’ petitions to hear challenges to Roe v. Wade, and in 2016 struck down by a 5-3 vote a Texas law that would have severely restricted restrictions. The court has ruled women can legally have abortions until the fetus would be viable outside the womb, normally at about 24 weeks.
Still, Iowa Republicans seemed undeterred, and a growing number of states have adopted extreme abortion restrictions, which anti-abortion activists see as a sign of momentum in their favor even though courts have struck down some of these restrictions.
Also, with rumors resurfacing about the possible retirement of 81-year-old Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who voted to strike down the Texas law, and other elderly justices on the bench, abortion opponents see the distinct possibility of another Trump appointee shifting the balance to a 5-4 vote to overturn Roe v. Wade.
“Tonight, Republicans, you have once again made a choice — a choice to debate legislation that devalues the bodies and decision-making skills of Iowa women and girls,” said Democratic Sen. Janet Petersen.
“The Iowa legislators’ attempt to effectively ban abortion is a blemish on the state and serves as a reminder that Iowa’s leadership does not value health care,” Erin Davison-Rippey, public affairs director of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland and Planned Parenthood Voters of Iowa, said in a statement.
Planned Parenthood of the Heartland and the ACLU of Iowa demanded that Governor Reynolds veto the bill.
In sharp contrast, Vander Plaats, president and CEO of The Family Leader, a conservative Christian group based in Urbandale, Iowa, exulted over the anti-abortion measure’s approval.

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