A federal judge has denied the state's request to postpone a trial on Utah's abortion law and ordered the case to proceed as scheduled.
The ruling means Utah's new law could go on trial early next year.In Tuesday's bench ruling, U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Greene said nothing would be gained by staying the case until March 1. He called the state's reasons for seeking the stay "speculative," saying that even if he granted the stay, both sides would still be arguing the same issues on March 1.
During Tuesday's hearing, the American Civil Liberties Union urged him to decide the constitutionality of Utah's law quickly. Confused women think abortion in Utah is illegal and are trying to self-abort, said ACLU attorney Janet Benshoof.
"A young lady came into Planned Parenthood bleeding because she tried to self-abort by hitting herself in the stomach for a couple of weeks," she said. The University of Utah's research reputation is also being damaged by the delay, she said. Five major associations involved in genetic and obstetrical research have canceled their Utah meetings in recent months because of Utah's abortion law and an earlier law prohibiting fetal experimentation.
The ACLU submitted affidavits from several doctors who attested to the damage done to the U.'s research reputation. Two prominent researchers said they are considering leaving the state because of the two laws.
State attorney Calvin Rampton said the ACLU's claims of harm were "pure fiction."
He said, "Any person who can read the papers knows the law has been stayed."
If there has been a drop in abortions since the Legislature passed Utah's abortion law, it is because "the controversy is causing more women to consider carrying their child to term rather than getting an abortion."
Rampton said the researchers' threat to leave Utah "is blackmail. It is not based on sound grounds."
Greene had ordered the state and the ACLU to appear in court Tuesday after reading about the state's plans to seek a stay for several weeks but never seeing any court documents on the matter.
"I haven't been able to follow all of the developments in the newspaper, so I thought maybe we could get together in court," he said wryly when he opened the hearing.
Greene also chided state attorneys for announcing plans to seek a stipulated stay without first asking the ACLU if it would agree to a stay.
"I guess you folks would do well to talk to each other more rather than preparing stipulations that aren't going to be acceptable anyway," Greene said. After Greene ordered Tuesday's hearing, the state filed a formal motion seeking a stay in the abortion case.
But Rampton's arguments in favor of the stay failed to persuade Greene. The state sought a stay in Utah's case because at least one other abortion case - in Louisiana - may reach the U.S. Supreme Court in the next several months. The court's ruling on that case "will give us a great deal of guidance," Rampton said.
But Benshoof said Rampton was optimistic in his expectation that the high court would accept the Louisiana case and rule on it promptly. Benshoof is also the ACLU's attorney in the Louisiana case.
"Louisiana is going nowhere fast," she said. The ACLU has asked the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to remand Louisiana's abortion case back to the Louisiana Supreme Court for review.
"Once it goes to the state supreme court that will take another six months," she said. The ACLU is also involved in abortion cases in Guam and Pennsylvania. Benshoof gave reasons why those cases, too, are not likely to reach the U.S. Supreme Court by March 1 - the final day of the stay Utah sought.