The ACLU believes Utah's laws prohibiting abortion and in utero experimentation have prompted some Utah women to induce their own abortions and have damaged the University of Utah's national reputation for in utero research.
So the American Civil Liberties Union will fight the state's plans to stay a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of those laws."We want to move this thing along. We filed it. It's our case. We're moving ahead," said Jeff Oritt, attorney for the ACLU.
"We are aware of Utah women who thought abortion is now illegal and went to drastic steps in a high-risk effort to self-abort," said Jeff Oritt, attorney for the ACLU.
"Even though Utah's abortion law is not being enforced, women call daily asking, `Is abortion illegal now in Utah?' " he said. Staying the abortion suit would harm Utah women who are already confused over whether they can get an abortion here.
Doctors who are plaintiffs in the ACLU suit - including some of the U.'s most prominent obstetrical and fertility specialists - believe a stay in the case would also damage their careers, Oritt said. "There is a question whether in utero surgery or experiments with genetics and fetal tissues could be criminal," Oritt said. "The statute says it is. That makes some doctors wonder if they should stay in Utah to continue their professional development."
Even though the law prohibiting fetal experimentation is not being enforced, the existence of the law has made it difficult for Utah researchers to get grants and persuade other researchers to come here, he said.The U. has a reputation as one of the leading universities in the treatment of genetic defects and fetal problems in the uterus, Oritt said. U. researchers claim the presence of a law restricting such work is damaging that reputation.
So the ACLU wants the court to decide now - not next year - the constitutionality of three Utah laws prohibiting abortion on demand, abortion without a husband's knowledge and fetal experimentation.
But state attorneys will file a motion Monday asking U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Greene to stay Utah's case until March 1, said Miles Holman attorney for the state.
The state announced several weeks ago it would seek a stay in Utah's abortion case pending the outcome of similar lawsuits in two other states. Attorneys believe Louisiana's prohibition on abortion is similar to Utah's and will reach the U.S. Supreme Court first.
Utah's case could be decided more quickly after the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on that abortion case. Pennsylvania's new abortion law has a spousal notification requirement similar to Utah's, Holman said. A high court's decision on the constitutionality of that law could prevent a prolonged court fight over Utah's law, he said.
If a stay is granted and the U.S. Supreme Court has not decided by March 1 whether to hear the Louisiana abortion case, Utah would either seek an extension of the stay or go ahead with a trial on its own law.
Holman was surprised at the ACLU's announcement that it would fight the state's request for a stay. He thought the stay was a reasonable request. "I expected they would find it reasonable also. I guess they didn't."
The ACLU will also fight the stay because they don't believe Louisiana's and Pennsylvania's laws have anything to do with the Utah case. The ACLU is challenging the Utah law because its language is too vague, Oritt said. Any high court decision on laws in other states has nothing to do with the vague language of Utah's law, he said.
"We think it is tremendously harmful to just hang around for a couple of years and wait while there is a huge question mark hanging over this law," he said.