As previously reported, last month the Iowa Supreme Court in Planned Parenthood of Heartland, Inc. v. Reynolds overruled its own 2018 decision and held that neither the due process nor the equal protection clause of Iowa's constitution grants a fundamental right to an abortion. It thus rejected subjecting abortion regulation to strict scrutiny under the state Constitution, but did not decide what level of scrutiny should apply. Now that the U.S. Supreme Court in Dobbs has held that the standard of review under the federal constitution for abortion regulation is rational-basis review, the state has filed with the Iowa Supreme Court a petition for rehearing (full text) in Planned Parenthood of Heartland asking the Court to now hold that rational-basis review is also the correct standard under the Iowa Constitution for review of abortion regulations. ADF issued a press release announcing the filing.
