Utah judge to rule next week in state’s ban on abortion clinics

SALT LAKE CITY — The Planned Parenthood Association of Utah argued in court Friday a ban on abortion clinics would “functionally eliminate” abortion access if implemented next week as scheduled.

After hearing arguments from attorneys representing Utah and abortion providers, state court Judge Andrew Stone said he planned to rule next week on Planned Parenthood’s motion requesting the law be delayed.

“It would not be fair at this point to shoot from the hip,” Stone said, explaining that he needed several days to review each side’s briefs.

Planned Parenthood argues the clinic ban is a backdoor strategy by Utah to further restrict abortion while legal challenges to a 2020 trigger law make their way through the court system. Utah rebuffed those arguments and said abortion clinics could reapply to be licensed as hospitals under the new framework. The state’s attorneys said the court had little grounds to overrule a law passed and signed by elected officials because courts hadn’t determined Utah’s Constitution guaranteed the right to an abortion.

“There is a public interest in enacting laws, including licensure laws and regulations, that promote high standards of public health and safety, even if the effect of such laws reduces the number of overall providers,” the attorney general’s office argued.

Amid conflicting interpretations of when abortion clinics will lose their licenses under the law, Planned Parenthood said it would be forced to stop providing abortions May 3. Utah officials have said the licenses would remain valid until the end of the year, but Planned Parenthood has said it fears continuing as before could open clinicians up to criminal penalties.

“There are no other alternatives if these clinics are shut down,” Sarah Stoesz, the president and CEO of the group’s Utah affiliate, said outside of court on Friday. “Hospitals have not stepped forward to say that they will take the care that licensed abortion clinics provide.”

The ban on clinics is Utah lawmakers’ latest effort to restrict abortions and comes less than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. That decision triggered two previously passed laws — a 2019 ban on abortion after 18 weeks and a 2020 ban on abortions regardless of trimester, with several exceptions including instances of risk to maternal health as well as rape or incest reported to the police.