E-FILED 2019 JAN 22 8:42 AM POLK - CLERK OF DISTRICT COURT

IN THE IOWA DISTRICT COURT FOR POLK COUNTY

PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF THE
HEARTLAND, INC., EMMA
GOLDMAN CLINIC and JILL
MEADOWS, M.D.,
Petitioners,

CASE NO. EQCE 83074

RULING ON MOTION FOR
SUMMARY JUDGMENT

vs.
KIM REYNOLDS, ex rel. State of Iowa
and IOWA BOARD OF MEDICINE,
Respondents.

A contested hearing on the petitioners’ motion for summary judgment was held
before the undersigned on December 7, 2018 as previously scheduled. Upon
consideration of the arguments made at the hearing, and having reviewed the file and
being otherwise duly advised in the premises, the court rules as follows:
This is an action brought by the petitioners challenging the constitutionality of
recent legislation passed by the Iowa legislature (Iowa Code chapter 146C) which would
prohibit an abortion1 upon the detection of a fetal heartbeat2 by means of an abdominal
ultrasound, in cases that do not involve a medical emergency3 or when the abortion is
medically necessary (defined generally within the statute as involving rape, incest,

1

“Abortion” is defined within the statute as “the termination of a human pregnancy with the intent other
than to produce a live birth or to remove a dead fetus.” Iowa Code §146C.1(1) (2019).
2
“Fetal heartbeat” is defined as “cardiac activity, the steady and repetitive rhythmic contraction of the fetal
heart within the gestational sac.” Iowa Code §146C.1(2) (2019).
3
“Medical emergency” is defined as “a situation in which an abortion is performed to preserve the life of
the pregnant woman whose life is endangered by a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury,
including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy, but not including
psychological conditions, emotional conditions, familial conditions, or the woman's age; or when
continuation of the pregnancy will create a serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a
major bodily function of the pregnant woman.” Iowa Code §146A.1(6)(a) (2019); see also Iowa Code
§146C.1(3) (2019).

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miscarriage or fetal abnormality4). Iowa Code §146C.2 (2019). The petitioners take the
position that this legislation violates the due process and equal protection provisions of
the Iowa constitution; specifically, they argue within the present motion that such a
determination can be made in advance of trial as a matter of law. The respondents resist,
primarily on the basis that genuine issues of material fact remain that must await a trial
on the merits. For the reasons noted within this ruling, the court agrees with the
petitioners and grants the motion for summary judgment.
The standards for considering a motion for summary judgment are well settled
under Iowa law:
Summary judgment is appropriate when there is no
genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is
entitled to judgment as a matter of law. An issue is
genuine if the evidence in the record is such that a
reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmoving
party. We view the record in the light most favorable to
the nonmoving party and will grant that party all
reasonable inferences that can be drawn from the record.
Summary judgment is appropriate if the only conflict
concerns the legal consequences of undisputed facts.
Honomichi v. Valley View Swine, L.L.C., 914 N.W.2d 223, 230 (Iowa 2018) (internal
citations, parentheticals, quotation marks and ellipses omitted).
The focus of the respondents’ factual challenge to the motion revolves around at
what stage of a pregnancy is a fetal heartbeat detectable. While conceding that a fetal
heartbeat can be detected as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, the respondents contend
that such detection is ordinarily not detected until later, especially when using an
abdominal ultrasound as mandated by the statute.5 The affidavit of the respondents’

4

Iowa Code §146C.1(4) (2019).
The petitioners’ reliance on a six-week period for detection of a fetal heartbeat appears to be premised on
the use of a transvaginal ultrasound.
5

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expert, Dr. Kathi Aultman, states that the earliest a fetal heartbeat can be detected
abdominally is 7 weeks, with most detected by 8 to 9 weeks and some not until 12 weeks
into the pregnancy.6 Aultman Affidavit, p. 2, ¶3.
Regardless of when precisely when a fetal heartbeat may be detected in a given
pregnancy, it is undisputed that such cardiac activity is detectable well in advance of the
fetus becoming viable.7 Within Dr. Meadows’ affidavit is the statement that the current
20-week postfertilization statutory limit for abortions under Iowa law, see Iowa Code
§146B.2 (2019) “is a minimum of several weeks before any fetus would be viable.”
Meadows Affidavit, p. 2, ¶3. This contention is not challenged within the respondent’s
resistance; to the contrary, the respondents contend that “viability…[is not] material to
this case.” Respondents’ Brief in Resistance to Motion for Summary Judgment, p. 4. To
the contrary, viability is not only material to this case, it is dispositive on the present
record.
In coming to this conclusion, this court has the benefit of the recent decision by
the Iowa Supreme Court in Planned Parenthood of the Heartland v. Reynolds, ex rel.
State, 915 N.W.2d 206 (Iowa 2018) (PPH II). In PPH II, the Iowa Supreme Court held
that a woman’s right to decide whether to terminate a pregnancy is a fundamental right
under the Iowa Constitution, and that any governmental limits on that right are to be

6

Dr. Aultman and the petitioners’ experts (Dr. Jill Meadows and Dr. Abbey Hardy-Fairbanks) agree that
the progression of any pregnancy should be measured from the first day of the last menstrual period (LMP
or lmp).
7
“Viability” is defined within the Iowa Criminal Code as “that stage of fetal development when the life of
the unborn child may be continued indefinitely outside the womb by natural or artificial life support
systems.” Iowa Code §702.20 (2019); see also Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 160, 93 S.Ct. 705, 160 (1973)
(definition of “viable” as “the interim point at which the fetus becomes…potentially able to live outside the
mother's womb, albeit with artificial aid”) (citations omitted).

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analyzed using strict scrutiny. Id. at 237, 241.8 A strict scrutiny analysis requires any
legislative infringement upon a fundamental right to be narrowly tailored to serve a
compelling state interest. Id. at 241, 243. In the court’s analysis of restrictions upon the
decision to terminate a pregnancy, it identified two state interests: 1) an interest in
protecting the woman’s own health and safety and ensuring that abortions are performed
safely; and 2) an interest in promoting potential life. Id. at 239 (citations omitted). It is
undisputed in the present case that it is the second state interest (the promotion of
potential life) that is at issue in analyzing the constitutionality of Iowa Code chapter
146C.
The application of a strict scrutiny test in the context of the state’s compelling
state interest in promoting potential life versus a woman’s fundamental right to decide to
terminate a pregnancy was first taken up in Roe v. Wade. In analyzing the state’s
interest, the United States Supreme Court focused on the viability of the fetus:
With respect to the State's important and legitimate interest
in potential life, the ‘compelling’ point is at viability. This
is so because the fetus then presumably has the capability
of meaningful life outside the mother's womb. State
regulation protective of fetal life after viability thus has
both logical and biological justifications. If the State is
interested in protecting fetal life after viability, it may go so
far as to proscribe abortion during that period, except when
it is necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother.
Roe, 410 U.S. at 163-64, 93 S.Ct. at 732. As a result, the court held that the state’s
interest in promoting potential life may only be used to regulate (even to the point of
proscription) postviability abortions, except where it is necessary, in appropriate medical

8

The supreme court analyzed the fundamental nature of this right under both the due process and equal
protection provisions of the Iowa Constitution. Id. at 244, 245-46.

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judgment, for the preservation of the life or health of the mother. Id. at 164-65, 93 S.Ct.
at 732.
While the framework first announced in Roe has been modified over the years,
the threshold of viability as a check on the state’s compelling state interest in promoting
potential life has remained intact. In Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania
v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833, 112 S.Ct. 2791 (1992), the United States Supreme Court
established an “undue burden” standard in analyzing state restrictions on previability
abortions. Id. at 878, 112 S.Ct. at 2821 (“An undue burden exists, and therefore a
provision of law is invalid, if its purpose or effect is to place a substantial obstacle in the
path of a woman seeking an abortion before the fetus attains viability”). However, in
doing so, the court went out of its way to make it clear that the “adoption of the undue
burden analysis does not disturb the central holding of Roe v. Wade…[that] a State may
not prohibit any woman from making the ultimate decision to terminate her pregnancy
before viability.” Id. at 879, 112 S.Ct. at 2821. Finally, in its most recent discussion of
the issue, the United States Supreme Court restated (“assume[d]”) this part of the holding
in Roe as reaffirmed by Casey. Gonzales v. Carhart, 550 U.S. 124, 146, 127 S.Ct. 1610,
1626 (2007) (“Before viability, a State ‘may not prohibit any woman from making the
ultimate decision to terminate her pregnancy’”) (quoting Casey, 550 U.S. at 879, 112
S.Ct. at 2821).
The Iowa Supreme Court expressly rejected the undue burden standard fashioned
in Casey and held that any legislative restrictions on a woman’s fundamental right to
decide to terminate a pregnancy should be measured solely by a strict scrutiny analysis:
Ultimately, adopting the undue burden standard would
relegate the individual rights of Iowa women to something

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less than fundamental. It would allow the legislature to
intrude upon the profoundly personal realms of family and
reproductive autonomy, virtually unchecked, so long as it
stopped just short of requiring women to move heaven and
earth. By applying the narrow tailoring framework,
however, we fulfill our obligation to act as a check on the
powers of the legislature and ensure state actions are
targeted specifically and narrowly to achieve their
compelling ends. The guarantee of substantive due process
requires nothing less. Accordingly, we conclude strict
scrutiny is the appropriate standard to apply.
PPH II, 915 N.W.2d at 240-41. While the court in PPH II did not expressly address the
previability versus postviability dichotomy from Roe and its progeny,9 this court is
satisfied that such an analysis is inherent in the Iowa Supreme Court’s adoption of a strict
scrutiny test when determining whether a legislative restriction on a woman’s
fundamental right to decide to terminate a pregnancy passes constitutional muster. See
id. at 239 (reference to state’s compelling interest in promoting potential life and citation
to Roe in reference to postviability).10 This court is equally satisfied that Iowa Code
chapter 146C fails in this regard as a prohibition of previability abortions.
This conclusion is buttressed by a number of decisions from a number of
intermediate federal courts that have invalidated abortion restrictions based either upon
arbitrary timelines or, as in the case of Iowa Code chapter 146C, the detection of a fetal
heartbeat. See, e.g., MKB Management Corp. v. Stenehjem, 795 F.3d 768, 773 (8th Cir.
2015), cert. denied, 136 S.Ct. 981 (2016) (fetal heartbeat law ruled unconstitutional as an
improper prohibition of previability abortions; summary judgment in favor of plaintiffs
9

PPH II dealt with the constitutionality of a procedural obstacle to obtaining an abortion (a mandatory 72hour delay between informational and procedural appointments) rather than an obstacle tied to the
development of the pregnancy. Id. at 213.
10
Even the dissenting opinion in PPH II appears to acknowledge that the state’s interest in promoting
potential life does not extend to a restriction imposed previability. See id. at 246 (Mansfield, J., dissenting)
(“Though the woman has a right to choose to terminate or continue her pregnancy before viability,….”)
(quoting Casey, 505 U.S. at 872, 112 S.Ct. at 2818).

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affirmed); Edwards v. Beck, 786 F.3d 1113, 1117 (8th Cir. 2015), cert. denied, 136 S.Ct.
895 (2016) (legislation prohibiting abortions where fetal heartbeat detected and
gestational period was twelve weeks or greater held unconstitutional; summary judgment
affirmed); Isaacson v. Horne, 716 F.3d 1213, 1227 (9th Cir. 2013), cert. denied 571 U.S.
1127, 134 S.Ct. 905 (2014) (statute prohibiting abortion after gestational age of twenty
weeks invalid; judgment in favor of state reversed).
Faced with the uphill battle created by this body of authority, the respondents
argue in the alternative that Iowa Code chapter 146C does not impose a ban on abortions,
but merely creates a window of opportunity for women to be vigilant in the exercise of
their right to terminate a pregnancy; in other words, if women are to be able to exercise
this right, they must also exercise the concomitant responsibility to monitor the potential
of a pregnancy and terminate that pregnancy prior to the detection of a fetal heartbeat.
This argument is nothing more than an attempt to repackage the undue burden standard
rejected by the Iowa Supreme Court in PPH II. 915 N.W.2d at 240 (“[T]he undue burden
standard solely measures the impact the regulation has on women’s ability to receive the
procedure”). The respondents’ argument, by acknowledging the admittedly narrow
amount of time afforded women under the statute, “would relegate the individual rights
of Iowa women to something less than fundamental.” Id. In actuality, the argument
would probably require women to engage in a level of diligence resembling something
along the lines of “mov[ing] heaven and earth,” a type of restriction the Iowa Supreme
Court found to be antithetical to the notion of a fundamental right. Id.
In summary, it is undisputed that the threshold for the restriction upon a woman’s
fundamental right to terminate a pregnancy (the detection of a fetal heartbeat) contained

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within Iowa Code chapter 146C constitutes a prohibition of previability abortions. As
such, it is violative of both the due process and equal protection provisions of the Iowa
Constitution as not being narrowly tailored to serve the compelling state interest of
promoting potential life. Accordingly, this court grants the petitioners’ motion for
summary judgment and declares Iowa Code chapter 146C unconstitutional and therefore
void. Iowa Const., Art. XII, §1 (“This constitution shall be the supreme law of the state,
and any law inconsistent therewith, shall be void”); PPH II, 915 N.W.2d at 213 (“No law
that is contrary to the constitution may stand”). The petitioners’ request for injunctive
relief will also be granted.
IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that the petitioners’ motion for summary
judgment is granted. Iowa Code chapter 146C is declared unconstitutional as violative of
article I, sections 6 and 9 of the Iowa Constitution. The respondents are permanently
enjoined from implementing, effectuating or enforcing the provisions of Iowa Code
chapter 146C. The costs of this proceeding are assessed to the respondents.

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State of Iowa Courts
Type:

OTHER ORDER

Case Number
EQCE083074

Case Title
PLANNED PARENTHOOD ET AL VS GOVERNOR KIMBERLY
REYNOLDS ET AL
So Ordered

Electronically signed on 2019-01-22 08:42:51

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