## Facts

- Iowa enacted a 2020 statute requiring specified informed-consent counseling at least 24 hours before an abortion and a minimum 24-hour waiting period before the procedure.
- Planned Parenthood of the Heartland and associated plaintiffs (including a physician) challenged the statute under the Iowa Constitution’s due process and equal protection provisions.
- Plaintiffs relied on a 2018 Iowa Supreme Court decision that treated abortion as a fundamental right and invalidated a different waiting-period law under strict scrutiny.
- The district court granted summary judgment for plaintiffs, holding the 24-hour waiting period unconstitutional under strict scrutiny based on the 2018 precedent.
- The State appealed and asked the Iowa Supreme Court to reconsider the 2018 precedent and uphold the 24-hour waiting period.

## Issues

1. Whether the Iowa Constitution protects abortion as a fundamental right such that abortion regulations trigger strict scrutiny.
2. What level of scrutiny applies to abortion regulations under the Iowa Constitution.
3. Whether the 24-hour waiting period was properly held facially unconstitutional on summary judgment.
4. Whether the statute violated the Iowa Constitution’s single-subject and title requirements.

## Decision

- The Iowa Supreme Court reversed the grant of summary judgment for plaintiffs and remanded for further proceedings.
- The court overruled the 2018 precedent to the extent it recognized a fundamental right to abortion under the Iowa Constitution.
- The court held that strict scrutiny does not apply to abortion regulations under the Iowa Constitution.
- The court declined in this decision to adopt a particular heightened test (including an “undue burden” standard) and left the precise standard for future development.
- The court did not finally decide whether the 24-hour waiting period is constitutional; it held only that the district court used the wrong framework.
- The court did not resolve the single-subject and title challenges, leaving them for consideration on remand.

## Legal Principles

- A state constitutional decision recognizing an unenumerated fundamental right may be reconsidered and overruled when the court concludes the decision lacked adequate grounding in constitutional text, history, and structure.
- Abortion is not a fundamental right under the Iowa Constitution for purposes of substantive due process and equal protection analysis.
- Because abortion is not fundamental under the Iowa Constitution, abortion regulations are not subject to strict scrutiny.
- When an appellate court rejects the legal standard applied below, summary judgment invalidating a statute may be reversed and the case remanded for application of the correct framework, without a merits determination on constitutionality.
- Legislative-process challenges under the single-subject and title clauses may be reserved for decision by the trial court when remand is otherwise required.

## Conclusion

The Iowa Supreme Court reversed a ruling striking down Iowa’s 24-hour abortion waiting period because the lower court applied strict scrutiny under overruled precedent; the court held abortion is not a fundamental right under the Iowa Constitution, rejected strict scrutiny, and remanded for reconsideration and for unresolved procedural-constitution claims.


Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, Inc. v. Reynolds ex rel. State, 975 N.W.2d 710 (Iowa 2022)