LOCAL NEWS

Utah Supreme Court to decide whether abortion trigger ban stays paused

Jul 31, 2024, 11:27 AM

The Utah Supreme Court....

FILE - The Utah Supreme Court. (KSL TV)

(KSL TV)

SALT LAKE CITY — A major ruling is set to come down Thursday impacting abortions in Utah. The Utah Supreme Court is set to rule on a lower court decision to pause Utah’s trigger ban.

The court will decide whether a pause on the ban that halts most abortions should stay in place.

If the justices rule it can stay in place, the case would get kicked to the lower 3rd District court for a full trial and abortions would stay legal until 18 weeks of pregnancy in Utah. If the court rules it cannot stay in place, meaning the pause on the trigger ban was unconstitutional, then Utah’s near-total ban on abortions could take effect while the case is litigated.

The trigger ban is Utah’s law from 2020, SB174, that took effect immediately upon the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, hence the name “trigger ban.”

The law effectively bans abortions except under limited circumstances like rape, incest, or if two maternal and fetal medicine doctors both determine a fetus has a uniformly diagnosable, lethal defect, or severe brain abnormality.

The ban passed in 2020 and Planned Parenthood sued over the law in 2022. Judge Andrew Stone of the 3rd District then granted an injunction and put the law on hold.  The state appealed that decision. In August of 2023, the Utah Supreme Court heard oral arguments in this case.

In addition to the trigger law, a preliminary injunction in the same case halts another law passed by the Utah Legislature. HB467 would have required abortions to happen only in hospitals and not clinics. But in the 2024 legislative session lawmakers repealed key parts of that law.

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Utah Supreme Court to decide whether abortion trigger ban stays paused