Iowa’s supreme court tells lower court to let strict abortion law take effect

The ruling previews the ending of a years-long legal battle over abortion restrictions in Iowa (Zach Boyden-Holmes/The Des Moines Register via AP)

The supreme court in Iowa has said the state’s strict abortion law is legal, telling a lower court to dissolve a temporary block on the law and allowing Iowa to ban most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy — before many women know they are pregnant.

The 4-3 ruling is a win for Republican politicians, and Iowa joins more than a dozen other states with restrictive abortion laws following the US supreme court’s overturning of Roe v Wade in 2022.