SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — The Utah Supreme Court is meeting Tuesday, Aug. 8 to hear arguments for the preliminary injunction, blocking Utah’s abortion trigger law from taking effect.
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe V. Wade, Utah’s trigger law, S.B. 174, was set to take effect. If it were in effect, abortion would be banned in most cases, except for rape or incest, if the mother’s life is in danger, or if the fetus has a “uniformly” fatal abnormality, according to this bill.
However, before the trigger law went into effect, Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union sued the state of Utah, claiming the trigger law was unconstitutional.
In response to Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit, a Utah judge granted a preliminary injunction, which blocks the trigger law from going into effect.
Following this injunction, Utah State Legislature moved to pass H.B. 467, limiting abortion clinics and banning abortions in most cases. However, this never went into effect as a Utah judge blocked the new law and put an injunction on it as well.
Tomorrow, Aug. 8, the UTAH Supreme Court will hear arguments for and against the injunction. If they side with the injunction, Utah’s abortion legislature will remain the same and will abide by H.B. 136, which was passed in 2019.
As it is now, women can receive elective abortions up to 18 weeks. After 18 weeks, an abortion can still be performed under certain conditions such as a medical emergency for the mother, a uniformly lethal or undiagnosable defect of the fetus, a severe brain abnormality of the fetus, or in cases of rape and incest.
