[1/2] A "90 years of service" poster hangs on the side of Planned Parenthood after the United States Supreme Court ruled in the Dobbs v Women's Health Organization abortion case, overturning the landmark Roe v Wade abortion decision, in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. June 24, 2022. REUTERS/Lawrence Bryant/File Photo
April 3 (Reuters) - Planned Parenthood on Monday asked a state court judge in Utah to block a law set to take effect next month that would effectively ban abortion clinics from operating in the state.
Planned Parenthood said the law, which would eliminate the licensing process for abortion clinics and thus effectively make it impossible to get an abortion anywhere but in a hospital, violated the state constitution's rights to privacy and bodily integrity, in a lawsuit filed in the Third Judicial District Court in Salt Lake City.
The case is before Judge Andrew Stone, who last year issued a preliminary order preventing the state from enforcing an earlier abortion ban while he hears a legal challenge by Planned Parenthood. The judge said at a hearing in that separate case that it was prudent to pause a "seismic change in women's health treatment" until the lawsuit, which remains pending, is finally decided.
Planned Parenthood argued that Stone should block the newer law for the same reason, saying it would ban 95% of abortions in the state if allowed to take effect on May 3.
"As promised, Planned Parenthood Association of Utah is fighting back and doing everything in our power to make sure that Utahns can get the care they need to stay healthy," Sarah Stoez, interim president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, said in a statement.
The office of Utah Governor Spencer Cox, a Republican, who signed the law last month, declined to comment.
The law blocked last year was a so-called trigger ban set to take effect in the event that the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion established in its landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which it did last June.
The law banned nearly all abortions, with exceptions for risk of death or permanent injury to the mother and for severe fetal abnormalities. It also included an exception in cases of rape or incest, but only if reported to the police.
For now, abortion remains legal up to 18 weeks of pregnancy in Utah.
Twelve of the 50 U.S. states now ban abortion outright while many others prohibit it after a certain length of pregnancy, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.
Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Bill Berkrot
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
johnhummel on April 4th, 2023 at 14:31 UTC »
You know, I grew up Mormon.
Thankfully I’ve left because I was raised as an annoying little homophobe and was so worried about the “precious precious babies” inside of women more than the woman themselves.
I’m glad I’m out.
Either way, the whole focus on abortion has to be one of the silliest parts about modern day Christianity. Jesus talked about feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, tending to the sick - and that those would be the ones getting into heaven. The ones who refused that? Not such a good ending.
I can’t help but think of these evangelical Christian nationalists actually followed the word of their god and provided health care for everyone, enough funds so there were no poor or homeless people - wouldn’t that encourage more people to keep a pregnancy to full term?
It’s like they have a template that would give them what they want. But they’re so focused on punishment and control of women over what Jesus actually said to do, they’re they’re own worst enemy.
MeatsimPD on April 4th, 2023 at 14:18 UTC »
Remember when Republicans said they'd allow abortions to save the life the mother
nutmeggerking on April 4th, 2023 at 14:02 UTC »
They long ago abandoned being conservative and are actively regressive. The GOP is the party of regressives, trying to constantly drag us back to the 19th century. It's fucking exhausting and infuriating to deal with