Gov. Kim Reynolds has been a featured speaker at the Family Leadership Summit every year during her governorship. When she took the stage at Community Choice Credit Union Convention Center in Des Moines for this year’s event on July 11, Reynolds — who announced in April she is not running for reelection — reflected on […]
Iowa Supreme Court
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Sharply divided Iowa Supreme Court dismisses wrongful imprisonment claim
A sharply divided Iowa Supreme Court has affirmed a lower court decision dismissing a former prisoner’s claim for damages due to wrongful imprisonment. In strongly worded dissenting opinions, two of the Iowa justices called the majority’s decision in the case on Friday “frightening” and “profoundly wrong,” warning that it could remove any disincentive for state […]
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Iowa Supreme Court rejects LULAC’s lawsuit over English-only voting materials
The Iowa Supreme Court has reversed a district court decision that cleared the way for election officials to distribute voter materials in languages other than English. Without directly addressing the merits of Iowa’s law restricting the dissemination of government records in languages other than English, the court found that the League of United Latin American […]
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Iowa Republicans advance bill with a ban on Medicaid funding for all forms of gender-affirming care
On Wednesday, Iowa Senate Republicans advanced a bill with a provision that would cut off funding for medical treatments for people with gender dysphoria, despite testimony pointing to a medical consensus that stopping access to such treatments can increase the risk of suicide among transgender people. This is the first piece of anti-trans legislation Iowa […]
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Legal challenge to Iowa’s near-total abortion ban withdrawn; pro-choice PAC to spend $250,000 in the state ahead of Election Day
Last week, the legal challenge to Iowa’s new near-total abortion ban ended. On Thursday, the ACLU of Iowa filed a petition in Polk County District Court asking Judge Jeffrey Farrell to dismiss the lawsuit it filed in July 2023 on behalf of the Emma Goldman Clinic, Planned Parenthood of the Heartland (PPH) and its medical […]
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‘We now live in a reality where politicians have control over Iowans’ bodies’: Planned Parenthood shares plans to mitigate harm caused by ‘reckless ban’
Iowa has entered a “devastating and dark” moment in its history, Dr. Sarah Traxler said on Friday. Traxler, the chief medical officer for Planned Parenthood North Central States (PPNCS), was speaking at an online news conference PPNCS held Friday morning to discuss the impact the near-total ban on abortions in Iowa that goes into effect […]
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Iowa Supreme Court rejects request for rehearing of its abortion decision, clearing the way for the state’s near-total ban to go into effect (Updated)
Update (Tuesday, July 23, 2024): Iowa’s new near-total abortion ban will go into effect on Monday, following the Iowa Supreme Court’s rejection of a rehearing request on its latest decision on reproductive rights. In an order issued Tuesday morning, Polk County District Court Judge Jerry Farrell wrote “the temporary injunction shall be deemed dissolved effective […]
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Iowa’s near-total abortion ban remains blocked by injunction
The state’s near-total abortion ban will not go into effect until the Iowa Supreme Court acts on a petition for a rehearing on its decision to overturn a temporary injunction against the ban, a Polk County District Court judge informed the parties in the case on Friday afternoon. A divided Iowa Supreme Court ruled 4-3 […]
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Iowa’s extreme abortion ban expected to go into effect Friday
Iowa’s near-total abortion ban is expected to go into effect on Friday, following the 4-3 Iowa Supreme Court decision on June 28 that overturned the temporary injunction halting the ban while the lawsuit filed by the Emma Goldman Clinic and Planned Parenthood North Central States is before the courts. The four-justice majority sent the case back […]
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Iowa Supreme Court upholds near-total abortion ban, creating ‘a constitutional rule that gives no weight to a woman’s autonomy over her body’
Six years ago, the Iowa Supreme Court found the state constitution guaranteed the right to an abortion. “Autonomy and dominion over one’s body go to the very heart of what it means to be free,” then-Chief Justice Mark Cady wrote in the 2018 decision striking down a medically unnecessary 72-hour waiting period for an abortion […]
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How the Clark family of Muscatine helped desegregate schools in Iowa — and nationwide
There’s fascinating history to be found in Muscatine. Before adopting the name Mark Twain, Samuel Clemens briefly wrote for the Muscatine Journal while his brother was the paper’s editor. Long before Field of Dreams, it saw some of America’s earliest minor-league baseball teams take the field. Neither Twain nor those teams left much of a […]
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Iowa Board of Medicine will consider rules for six-week abortion ban, even as injunction remains in effect
Last week, Attorney General Brenna Bird finally filed the Reynolds administration’s appeal to the Iowa Supreme Court, seeking to have the temporary injunction stopping enforcement of a new law banning almost all abortion after six weeks lifted. The Nov. 8 court filing comes four months after Gov. Kim Reynolds issued a statement saying she would […]
