You’re invited! Join LifeSite in celebrating 25 years of pro-life and pro-family reporting at our anniversary Gala August 17th in Naples, Florida. Tickets and sponsorships can be purchased by clicking here.
(LifeSiteNews) – The U.S. Supreme Court is no longer forcing states to tolerate any abortions within their borders, but a Utah judge ruled Monday that the practice will continue to be insulated from the state’s duly-enacted laws.
Designed not to take effect until the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which finally happened last month, Utah’s 2020 trigger law prohibits abortions except in cases of rape or incest reported to law enforcement, serious physical threats to the mother, or findings that a baby “has a defect that is uniformly diagnosable and uniformly lethal” or “a severe brain abnormality that is uniformly diagnosable.”
Last week, 3rd District Court Judge Andrew Stone granted abortion defenders’ request for a temporary block of the trigger law, writing that its “immediate effects that will occur outweigh any policy interest of the state in stopping abortions immediately,” adding that “Doctors here are threatened with felonies.”
The Salt Lake Tribune reported Monday that Stone announced the block would remain in place while the lawsuit on the merits of the law worked its way through the system.
“I believe that the people that enacted [the trigger law] had deep feelings about this and wanted a radical change,” Stone said. “But when you’re talking about a seismic change in women’s health treatment,” there are serious questions that “have to be litigated fully” before changing a status quo that has “been in place in Utah for nearly 50 years.”
“We’re grateful that for now, abortion services remain legal and available in Utah,” Planned Parenthood Association of Utah CEO Karrie Galloway said. “The past few weeks since the Supreme Court’s ruling have been terrifying and confusing for our patients and providers across the state.” Galloway added that she expects to be able to tie up the trigger law for “at least a year” with this lawsuit.
An 18-week abortion ban remains in effect in the Beehive State.
Roe’s’ overturn sparked the activation of numerous pre-Roe abortion bans that had gone unenforced for decades, as well as more recent pro-life laws that had been blocked by courts, and trigger laws designed not to take effect until Roe was reversed.
Across the country, abortion giant Planned Parenthood has suspended abortions and/or closed locations in reaction to the ruling, and pro-life attorneys general have declared their intentions to enforce their states’ duly-enacted abortion prohibitions. But leftists prosecutors in dozens of localities have vowed not to enforce such laws, ensuring that work and debate will continue over the prospect of banning abortion nationally.
Stone’s actions serve as a reminder that Roe’s< overturn does not prevent rogue judges from running interference for the abortion industry, highlighting the need for pro-lifer action to clarify that state constitutions do not contain rights to abortion.