Iowa court ruling a blow to Midwest abortion care

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Last month, our hearts broke as our neighbors to the south lost the ability to make private, personal medical decisions. After a monumental Iowa Supreme Court decision, abortion will be banned in Iowa at as early as six weeks. Our patients will lose control over their own lives and futures in a matter of weeks. Our community is mourning.

This is the reality of a post-Roe world. In a day, access to essential, sometimes life-saving health care was stripped away. And while abortion access in Minnesota is safe for now, the Iowa ruling, along with other U.S. Supreme Court cases, shows us that the attacks are far from over. It’s a cruel reminder that anti-choice politicians and interest groups were never going to stop with overturning Roe. Their goal is to ban abortion nationwide, and further restrict care by attacking birth control access and IVF.

Earlier in June, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit brought by the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine that threatened nationwide access to mifepristone based on a lack of standing. Mifepristone, one of two medications used in medication abortion, is safe, effective and has been used by more than 5 million people since the FDA approved it more than 20 years ago.

Behind the numbers are real people. People like our patient Rue, who shared that getting mifepristone from Planned Parenthood felt the way medical procedures should feel in the U.S. — streamlined, comfortable, caring. Her access to mifepristone allowed her to build the future economic security she wanted. She has since bought a house and found her passion advocating for accessible health care.

We also got a decision in the Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA) case. In 2022, the Biden administration filed suit against the state of Idaho to enforce federal law that requires hospitals that receive Medicare funds to provide emergency health care, including abortions. On June 27, the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily allowed emergency abortion care as it sent the case back to a lower court. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson put it best: “Today’s decision is not a victory for pregnant patients in Idaho. It is a delay.”

The rulings are a temporary relief, but they are not a protection. In the United States, pregnant people’s health and lives are on the line.

Every person deserves the freedom to build their family knowing they have access to the high-quality care they need. Every pregnancy is different, which is why every person, in every state, must be able to make their own decisions about what is best for them, including whether to get an abortion, without barriers or political interference.

In Minnesota, with the protections of the Protect Reproductive Options Act and Doe v. Gomez, we currently have the right to abortion care. This right is even more important as people from neighboring states increasingly travel to Minnesota for care.

National court cases reveal that threats to abortion access can even penetrate sanctuary states like Minnesota and are a constant in a post-Roe world. Abortion bans — whether state or federal — put people’s lives at risk and have devastating effects on other reproductive health care. As maternal mortality rates skyrocket in states with abortion bans, Black mothers across America face maternal mortality rates that are three times higher than those of their white counterparts. Bad policy most often harms those who face unequal barriers to health care, especially young people, LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, Black and brown people, and those living in rural communities.

This is personal — especially for those of us closest to the pain of these preventable disparities as we strive to build a better world. When you create systems that help those who face the largest barriers, you increase access for all.

Everyone should have the freedom to control their own bodies, lives and futures.

So we remain vigilant. We refuse to deny the interconnectedness of national and local threats. We work to constantly do better and leave no one behind. Politicians and activists who want to ban abortion will not stop. Neither will we. We will advocate for reproductive rights until everyone can access the essential care they need in their own community.

Ruth Richardson is president and CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States.