SALT LAKE CITY – The Planned Parenthood Association of Utah and the American Union of Civil Liberties of Utah filed a lawsuit to block the new Utah law that prohibits all elective abortions.
The lawsuit, filed Saturday in the 3rd District Court of Salt Lake City, argues that Utah law is unconstitutional and calls for a restraining order to prevent it from being enforced. FOX 13 News reported Friday night that the law had come into force following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v.letting states decide how to regulate abortion.
The Utah state legislature passed a law in 2020 that bans all elective abortions in the state, with the exception of rape and incest, maternal health or safety, or fetal viability. The law was suspended pending a U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
“Utahs harmed by this extreme ban on abortion will include women seeking care only days or weeks after discovering a missed period; those who are already struggling to lift their children out of poverty, finish school, escape from an abusive partner or overcoming addiction; sexual. survivors of aggression who, as usual, do not report their aggression to law enforcement; and families suffering from fetal diagnoses who know they are ill-equipped to cope. ” , states the lawsuit.
“In each of these cases, and in countless others, Utah residents who have relied on safe and 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 if and when they become parents, their right to be free from discriminatory state laws that perpetuate stereotypes about women and their proper social role, the right to bodily autonomy and to be free from involuntary servitude; and the right to make private health care decisions and to maintain that health care. decisions free from public scrutiny. “
Planned Parenthood said in the lawsuit that it was forced to cancel a dozen appointments Friday for abortions as a result of the trigger law. Next week she had scheduled more than 55 abortion procedures that were stopped by the new law.
The lawsuit names Gov. Spencer Cox, Attorney General Sean Reyes and the head of Utah’s Occupational and Professional Licensing Division as defendants. A Cox spokesman told FOX 13 News that they had no comment on the lawsuit.
Karrie Galloway, president of the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, said the state constitution grants equal rights to men and women.
“To be honest, this isn’t the first time we’ve had to sue the state of Utah,” he said. “And we’ve won most of the lawsuits.”
He said 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 lawsuit calls for a temporary restraining order on the trigger law; Planned Parenthood had to cancel more than 55 scheduled abortion procedures next week, according to the lawsuit.
“They made those appointments a week, 10 days ago,” Galloway said. “They expected to have bodily autonomy over decisions about forced pregnancy. And today, they haven’t.”
The state has 21 days to respond to the demand.
Galloway said she will continue to fight day after day for Utah women.
“This is definitely the biggest challenge we’ve had,” he said. “I like a challenge.”
Because the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that abortion is a matter for states to decide, litigation will be fought at the state level and this case is likely to reach the Utah Supreme Court. On Friday, thousands of people protested the sentence in front of the Utah State Capitol.
Read the demand here: