The Foundation for Moral Law, an Alabama-based organization dedicated to the defense of religious liberty, the sanctity of life, and the strict interpretation of the Constitution as intended by its Framers, filed an amicus brief today in support of the State of Iowa’s fetal heartbeat bill against a challenge to its constitutionality brought by Planned Parenthood. Read the brief here.

In an earlier decision, the Iowa Supreme Court held that the fetal heartbeat bill (prohibiting abortion any time after a heartbeat in the preborn child can be detected), violated the equal protection provisions of the Iowa State Constitution, which, the Court said, gave greater protections to women than the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Because each state is the final interpreter of its own state constitution, this decision could not be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

However, this Iowa Supreme Court decision has been invalidated, the Legislature has again passed the fetal heart bill, and it is again being challenged by Planned Parenthood. In its amicus brief, the Foundation has argued that the Framers of the Iowa Constitution never intended the radical interpretation that the Iowa courts have chosen in recent decisions.

Foundation Senior Counsel John Eidsmoe, the primary author of the brief, noted that the 1846 and 1857 Iowa Constitutions limited the franchise to white male citizens, and the 1868 amendment removed the word “white,” but not the word “male.” When women were finally given the right to vote in Iowa, the intent was that they would have the rights previously given only to men. Clearly, that could not have included the “right to an abortion.”

“Furthermore,” Eidsmoe said, “Iowa’s 1857 act which made abortion illegal was titled ‘An Act to Prohibit Feticide,’ clearly showing an intent to protect the preborn child.”