UTAH (ABC4) – Following the historic overturn of Roe v. Wade, the Utah legislature has officially banned all elective abortions.
The Supreme Court ended constitutional protections for abortion on Friday and now Utah joins other U.S. states who have moved quickly to ban abortion, criminalizing the act.
In a letter, the state legislature says the Legislative Branch’s general counsel determined that S.B. 174 Abortion Prohibition Amendments, meets the legal requirement to take effect.
In 2020, the Utah Legislature passed S.B. 174, prohibiting all elective abortions in Utah, except in rare circumstances involving rape, incest, or medical emergency.
Utah is among 13 states with trigger laws, which are designed to take effect once abortion is no longer protected by the U.S. constitution.
Utah was one of several states to move quickly on banning abortion, with states like Missouri signing it’s abortion ban into effect just minutes after the Supreme Court’s decision.
Planned Parenthood Association of Utah filed a lawsuit in Utah state court on Saturday in response to the ban, and will “soon request a temporary restraining order against the state’s ban on abortion at any point in pregnancy,” according to a statement released by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
The lawsuit is a response to the state’s trigger ban, which outlaws abortion at any point in pregnancy in Utah and criminalizes providers.