A near-total abortion ban will remain on hold in Utah after the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the law should remain blocked until a lower court can assess its constitutionality. With the decision, the AP reports that abortion remains legal up to 18 weeks under another state law that has served as a fallback as abortion rights have been thrown into limbo. The panel wrote in its opinion that the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah had legal standing to challenge the state's abortion trigger law, and that a lower court acted within its purview when it initially blocked the ban.
Their ruling only affects whether the restrictions remain on pause amid further legal proceedings and does not decide the final outcome of abortion policy in the state. The case will now be sent back to a lower court to determine whether the law is constitutional. The trigger law that remains on hold would prohibit abortions except in cases when the mother's life is at risk or there is a fatal fetal abnormality. A separate state law passed this year also would allow abortions up to 15 weeks of pregnancy in cases of rape or incest.
Utah lawmakers passed the trigger law—one of the most restrictive in the nation—in 2020 to automatically ban most abortions should the US Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade. When Roe fell in June 2022, abortion rights advocates in Utah immediately challenged the law, and a district court judge put it on hold a few days later. Kathryn Boyd, president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, said she hopes the lower court will ultimately strike down the trigger law. "Today's decision means that our patients can continue to come to us ... to access abortion and other essential reproductive services," Boyd said. "While we celebrate this win, we know the fight is not over." (More Utah stories.)
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