U.S. District Judge Dee V. Benson heard arguments Friday on the constitutionality of Utah's 1993 abortion law and said he would issue a written ruling on the law shortly.
Attorneys for the state and Utah's two abortion clinics argued for slightly more than an hour on whether the law's 24-hour waiting period and informed consent placed an undue burden on Utah women seeking an abortion.Utah's 1993 law requires a woman to receive information about the development of her fetus and alternatives to an abortion, then wait 24 hours before obtaining the abortion.
New York attorney Eve Gartner clashed with Benson during the first hour of the hearing when he questioned her reasons for challenging the Utah law. Benson told Gartner he was offended by the way the Center for Reproductive Law & Policy had approached the case. Gartner had attempted to tell Benson that the center would accept the 1993 law if Benson would rule that women can be informed about abortion over the telephone.
U.S. Magistrate Ronald Boyce earlier recommended to Bensen that he find the 1993 law constitutional but said his own interpretation of the law would allow women to obtain the required information over the telephone.
Benson told Gartner it was inappropriate for her to tell him that certain interpretations of the law would be acceptable to her organization.
"Either you are here to say the law is unconstitutional as it is written or you have no business being here at all," Benson said.
Gartner dropped discussion of telephone visits and focused on why the entire law unduly burdens battered women, women who have been raped, and women carrying deformed fetuses. She said such women are traumatized by the requirements.
Assistant Utah attorney general Mark Ward told Benson that the arguments were no different than the arguments made before the U.S. Supreme Court on a Pennsylvania law.
The court upheld the Pennsylvania law as constitutional, and Ward said Benson should rule the same.
Benson seemed inclined to agree. "We very, very, seldom have guidance of the nature we have in this case," he told Gartner.
He read excerpts of the case ruling to her and said that the ruling mandates he uphold the constitutionality of Utah's law. Benson earlier issued an injunction prohibiting enforcement of the law until he had ruled on its constitutionality.