UTAH (ABC4) – Utah is one of 26 states either moving to ban abortion outright or severely restricting abortion rights.
In Utah, abortion is now banned in most cases.
So, if you’re a Utah woman seeking an abortion, what can you do? And what does Utah’s ban mean for things like birth control and the morning after pill?
It’s important to remember contraceptive is still legal in Utah, and that includes emergency contraceptives, IUDs, the pill, and other birth control.
Along those lines, in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments are still legal, and it is not illegal for someone to go out of state to get an abortion.
Planned Parenthood Utah is reminding people they also take all forms of insurance, have contraceptives available, and will still provide care.
For the 55 women who scheduled an abortion at their clinics this week, their options are limited.
Idaho and Wyoming are the closest states to receive an abortion for people living in northern and central Utah, but both states have an abortion trigger law that will soon take effect.
The closest state without a trigger law to receive an abortion is Colorado, and the nearest clinic is about a 6-hour drive away from Salt Lake City.
For people living in southern Utah, the closest place to get an abortion is in Nevada, which is about a 2-hour drive from St. George.
Planned Parenthood Utah says they’re doing what they can to help women coming in, but receiving an abortion out of state can be time sensitive, lengthy and expensive.
“It’s not just the distance, it’s the time,” Karrie Galloway, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Association Utah said.
“I mean all of this is not convenient, appropriate, or welcoming to a lot of people,” Galloway said.
Recent data shows abortion pills, some mailed to women and taken at home, make up over half of procedures in the U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland says that states cannot prohibit the use of the FDA approved abortion pill mifepristone.
However, that pill does require a doctor to sign off on it, and according to Planned Parenthood, it’s now illegal to get abortion pills by mail under Utah’s trigger law.
