SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah Planned Parenthood Association and the American Civil Liberties Union in Utah have filed a lawsuit to block Utah’s new law banning all abortions of choice.
A lawsuit filed Saturday in Salt Lake City’s 3rd District Court said Utah’s law was unconstitutional and sought a restraining order to block its implementation. FOX 13 News reported Friday night that the law came into force following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Rowe v. Wade.leaving it up to states to decide how to regulate abortion.
The Utah legislature passed a law in 2020 banning all abortions of choice in the state, with the exception of rape and incest, maternal health or safety, or fetal viability. The law was suspended pending a ruling by the US Supreme Court.
“Utah, affected by this extreme ban on abortion, will include women who seek care only days or weeks after the discovery of a missed period; those who are already struggling to lift their children out of poverty, finish school, run away from a violent partner or overcome addiction; attack survivors who, as usual, do not report their attack to law enforcement; and families grieving for fetal diagnoses that they know are not well prepared to deal with, “the lawsuit said.
“In each of these cases, countless other Utah residents who have relied on safe, legal access to abortion – access that has existed for at least five decades – will lose the right to determine the composition of their families and whether and when to become parents; their right to be exempt from discriminatory state laws that uphold stereotypes about women and their proper social role; the right to bodily autonomy and to be free from forced slavery; and the right to take private health care decisions and to keep those healthcare decisions free from public scrutiny. “
Planned Parenthood said in the case that it was forced to cancel a dozen meetings on Friday for abortions as a result of the trigger law. The following week, there were more than 55 planned abortion procedures that were suspended by the new law.
Governors Spencer Cox, Attorney General Sean Reyes and the head of Utah’s professional and professional licensing department have been named as defendants in the lawsuit. A Cox spokesman told FOX 13 News that they had no comment on the case.
Carrie Galloway, president of the Utah Planned Parenthood Association, said the state constitution provides equal rights for men and women.
“Honestly, this isn’t the first time we’ve had to sue Utah,” she said. “And we won most of the cases.”
She said the laws should not favor one sex over the other.
“He says men and women are equal,” Galloway said. “And that’s where we start.”
The claim seeks a temporary restraining order due to the enacting law; Planned Parenthood had to cancel more than 55 planned abortion procedures next week, the lawsuit said.
“They made these meetings a week ago, 10 days ago,” Galloway said. “They hoped to have bodily autonomy in terms of forced pregnancy decisions. And they didn’t do it today. “
The state has 21 days to respond to the lawsuit.
Galloway said he would continue to fight day after day for Utah women.
“This is definitely the biggest challenge we’ve had,” she said. “I enjoy the challenge.”
Because the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that abortion is a matter for the states to decide, litigation will be conducted at the state level, and the case is likely to reach the Utah Supreme Court. Thousands protested the decision in front of the Utah Capitol on Friday.
Read the case here:
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