SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – Utah Governor Spencer Cox said Friday that he plans to sign a measure that effectively bans abortion clinics from operating in the state, meaning hospitals will soon be the only place where they can be available in the state.
After passing the state Senate on Thursday with minor amendments, it returned to the Utah House of Representatives this morning, where it was approved and sent to the governor for final approval. The move comes less than a year after the US Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade, returned the power to regulate abortion to the states.
Cox told reporters she would sign the legislation, which also clarified the definition of abortion to address the issue of legal liability for providers of the way the exemption is worded in state law – a provision that she and Republican lawmakers called a compromise.
“One of the concerns about the trigger bill that medical providers across the country have is that there is a lack of clarity that will make it difficult to perform legal abortions,” Cox said.
The measure is one of several Utah Republican-supermajority statehouse members have passed this year when abortion bans approved in previous years were put on hold due to state court injunctions. It has faced fierce opposition from business, civil liberties and abortion rights groups, including the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, which operates three of the state’s four abortion clinics.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Utah sent a letter to Cox on Friday demanding she veto the legislation, with its executive director writing it interferes with people’s rights and “puts essential abortion care out of reach.”
Republican lawmakers push to close abortion clinics as red states across the country implement bans after overturning Roe v. Wade, the US Supreme Court decision that gave the constitutional right to abortion nearly 50 years ago.
In Utah, the judgment led to two laws that were previously passed – a 2019 ban on abortion after 18 weeks and a 2020 ban on abortion regardless of trimester, with some exceptions including cases of risk to the mother’s health as well as rape or incest reported by the police. . The state’s Planned Parenthood affiliate sued for a 2020 ban, and in July, a state court delayed enforcing it until a legal challenge could be resolved. The 18-week ban has become de facto law.
The clinic’s push in Utah is unique among states with trigger laws, where many abortion clinics closed after last year’s Supreme Court ruling including in West Virginia and Mississippi. The measure mirrors a raft of proposals passed in red states in the decade before Roe was overturned when anti-abortion lawmakers passed measures regulating clinics, including the size of procedure rooms and distance from hospitals.
In Utah, a proposal from Rep. Karianne Lisonbee will require all abortions – through medication or surgery – to be available in hospitals by not allowing new clinics to be licensed after May 2 and not allowing any to operate when the license expires. It will affect the operations of four clinics that provide abortions in Utah – three run by Planned Parenthood and the other by the Wasatch Women’s Center, an independent clinic in Salt Lake City.
In Utah last year, clinics provided the most abortions. Of the total 2,818 given, 61% used drugs like mifepristone instead of surgery. Abortion access advocates say abortion is no different than other types of specialty care that have increasingly moved to clinic settings where providers are more accustomed to dealing with ongoing patient problems and dealing with potential complications.