When discussing abortion law, a key element is how much protection the right to an abortion should be given by the courts.
Few constitutional rights are absolute, with no limits. Free speech, for example, is a considered crucially important constitutional right, but that doesn't mean that you can use that free speech to, for example, make a true threat to harm someone without any consequences.
So when state courts are asked to block a restriction on abortion, there are at least three basic categories of protection that they may apply in deciding whether it is constitutional or not.
Strongest Protection: The Strict Scrutiny Standard
This means that any law that restricts a right should be able to pass "strict scrutiny". When this standard is used, the state would have to show a court that it had a compelling need to restrict the constitutional right in question, and that the law does not restrict the right more than is necessary to meet that need.
Mid-Level Protection: The Undue Burden Standard
Abortion laws considered under this standard, generally, must not put a substantial obstacle on a person's ability to get an abortion prior to viability, which happens around 24 weeks in pregnancy.
Normal Protection: The Rational Basis Standard
A lower, less stringent standard that a law must meet. In Iowa, that means that the state must have a “realistically conceivable” purpose for passing a law, which was based in fact, and show that the law is rationally related to that purpose.
Many anti-choice advocates would like the standard in Iowa to be lowered from its current "undue burden" standard to this rational basis standard so that the legislature can restrict abortion even more.
