Editor’s note: This story will be updated as more information is provided.

The Iowa Supreme Court overruled a 2018 decision that protected abortion rights under the state’s constitution Friday.  

The original decision declared that the state’s constitution protects the right to an abortion, but the court said Friday that the previous ruling that established this constitutional right “insufficiently recognizes that future human lives are at stake.” 

In addition, the court decided to send a case that challenged a 24-hour waiting period for abortion back to a lower court to be reevaluated. 

Considering that there is a U.S. Supreme Court decision expected soon, access to abortions in Iowa and across the U.S. may become more difficult. 

This decision “eliminates a strong, workable and widely accepted barrier to governmental intrusion into the reproductive choices of a woman and invites us to stare into the standard-less abyss,” according to the Iowa Supreme Court’s official opinion. 

Even though Friday’s decision did not say what the new standard should be, the court stated there is not a constitutional guarantee of the right to abortion. 

“Although we overrule [the 2018 court decision], and thus reject the proposition that there is a fundamental right to an abortion in Iowa’s Constitution subjecting abortion regulation to strict scrutiny, we do not at this time decide what constitutional standard should replace it,” according to the majority opinion, written by Justice Edward Manfield.