SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Senate passed a bill along party lines Monday that would ban abortion in the state.
“I think it’s the government’s role to speak up for those who can’t speak for themselves. That is one of our primary duties, and the unborn cannot speak and as a result it is our obligation to protect them,” bill sponsor Sen. Dan McCay, R-Riverton, told reporters after the vote. “It’s regrettable that the government has to protect the unborn from a parent.”
The Senate approved the legislation 22-6 after a brief discussion and objections from Democrats. It now goes to the House, where it is expected to pass.
SB174 would prohibit abortion except in cases of rape or incest; to prevent the death or “substantial impairment” of the woman if she gives birth; or if the fetus has a lethal birth defect or severe brain abnormality that would cause it to be in a vegetative state. The bill would make it a second-degree felony to perform an abortion that doesn’t meet one of those criteria.
On the Senate floor, McCay said he would encourage young mothers who are considering abortion to step back and ask themselves if there are other options.
“I am convinced, even when we feel like there is no other way to do something, there are always other options, and ask that until this bill takes effect, that they exercise that choice to exercise life,” he said.
Sen. Kathleen Riebe, D-Cottonwood Heights, said giving up a baby that a woman has carried for nine months is not always an option.
“For somebody else, in somebody else’s room, standing in the Capitol deciding what should happen with my family is not the place for those conversations,” she said.
Riebe said the bill is not helpful for women who live in poverty or who have been abused.
“We are taking away the rights of women. We are saying that they don’t have a responsibility for their bodies. It’s man’s job to take care of this woman, so therefore they’re going to receive the punishment,” she said.
Sen. Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, said there’s probably a family in the hospital right now facing a tough decision with information that “none of us have.”
“And here we are, us sitting here going to make a decision on how that goes and what the process is, and we know better. We don’t,” she said, adding there’s nothing as sad as government intruding on such a personal decision.
The law would only take effect if a court of binding authority, such as the U.S. Supreme Court, rules that a state may prohibit the abortion of an unborn child at any time during the gestational period, other than in the cases of the exemptions.
Several states have already mounted challenges to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.
“It is important for the Supreme Court, it is important for the rest of the country, to see that there are divided opinions about the way things ought to be dealt with and I think it’s important as they are looking at that case and policy that they see this is where Utah would be given the opportunity to take Utah’s consideration in,” McCay said.
McCay said he hopes the high court strikes down the law in the next two years.
Contributing: Sahalie Donaldson
Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified Sen. Kathleen Riebe as Sen. Kathryn Riebe.