By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)

Governor Kim Reynolds plans to sign a bill into law at 2:15 this afternoon that will ban most abortions in Iowa. There’ll be a court hearing less than an hour before that for a lawsuit that seeks to at least temporarily block the law from taking effect.

A very similar law, signed by Governor Reynolds on May 4, 2018, never went in effect due to a court injunction. The governor’s request that the Iowa Supreme Court lift that injunction failed on a three-to-three tie among the justices. Senate Republican Leader Jack Whitver said the state’s highest court has never ruled on whether a six week abortion ban is constitutional and that’s why the legislature passed the same proposal, again, on Tuesday.

“They have ruled on procedural matters and other bills that we have passed. They have never answered this question,” Whitver said. “…I would expect it will go back to the Supreme Court and we will get a final answer on where the Supreme Court stands.”

It’s unclear when the district court judge may rule on the request for an injunction to block the law from taking effect. House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst said if the law goes into effect this afternoon, even for a few hours or a few days, it will create chaos.

“Doctors won’t know what to do, patients won’t know what to do,” Konfrst said. “There will be questions and — most importantly — there will be inconsistent care across the state because different doctors will interpret it differently.”

Konfrst and other Democrats say the bill fails to provide clear guidance to doctors about when they may and may not perform an abortion in medical emergencies.