Current Events > Utah mandatory abortion ultrasound bill dies in final hours of session

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2020/03/13/mandatory-ultrasound-bill/

A controversial state bill to require ultrasounds before an abortion died without a final vote Thursday, days after all six of Utahs female senators both Republican and Democratic made national news by walking out of their chamber to protest the measure.

The legislation has been in limbo between the House and Senate since Tuesday's walkout, waiting for one last vote of concurrence before heading to the governor's desk. But that last action never came, despite the bill sponsor's last-ditch effort to resurrect it.

Abortion rights advocates were elated at the de facto defeat after what they view as the Legislatures sustained assault on access to the procedure.

The people of Utah, including the women of the Senate and many others in both chambers of the Legislature, could see this bill for what it was a deeply intrusive and medically unnecessary violation of people seeking abortion care in Utah, Karrie Galloway, CEO and president of Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, said in a prepared statement. This bill would have caused immense harm and trauma to those already making an often complex and difficult decision.

This session, lawmakers approved a bill requiring medical providers to cremate or bury fetal remains after an abortion or miscarriage. On Thursday, they gave final passage to a bill that would ban all elective abortions in the state if the U.S. Supreme Court ever reverses its landmark Roe v. Wade ruling on the procedure.

Meanwhile, abortion rights advocates have said Utahns are weary of additional restrictions on the procedure, pointing to a recent poll that found fewer than a third wanted the state to make it harder to access abortions.

The mandatory ultrasound bill, HB364, wouldve required physicians or technicians handling the imaging to display the images to the woman and make the fetal heartbeat audible, if possible. The woman would still have the option of averting her eyes or asking the doctor to lower the volume.

A doctor would be barred from performing an abortion unless the woman produced a form showing shed had the required sonogram. The penalties for disregarding the mandate would be up to $100,000 for a first offense and up to $250,000 for subsequent offenses.

Even Republican lawmakers had called the bills provisions heavy-handed, although they allowed it to proceed in the Legislature until it neared final passage. Then, earlier this week in the state Senate, a bipartisan group of female lawmakers united in resistance to the proposal, with Sen. Deidre Henderson saying it went too far.

I am very pro-life, and always vote for pro-life bills," Henderson, R-Spanish Fork, said. "But Im concerned that we are overstepping with government mandates of medically unnecessary procedures.

The protest move caught the attention of Gov. Gary Herbert, who told reporters Thursday that Utahns should heed the loud message sent by the women of the Senate.

The women won.
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Good

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Does Utah even have a clinic, or does everyone have to drive to Nevada anyway?

MC_BatCommander posted...

Good

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Good. Fuck all anti-abortion bills and rhetoric. That shit has no place in the world.
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religious states once again focusing on the irrelevant issues
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Machete posted...

Good. Fuck all anti-abortion bills and rhetoric. That shit has no place in the world.

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Bio1590 posted...

This session, lawmakers approved a bill requiring medical providers to cremate or bury fetal remains after an abortion or miscarriage

In future, shall we inhume our nocturnal emissions following a 21-gun salute, a procession of professional mourners a-wailing and tearing their garments and a seven hour eulogy from some desert-blasted anchorite?


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MC_BatCommander posted...

Good

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Questionmarktarius posted...

Does Utah even have a clinic, or does everyone have to drive to Nevada anyway?

A quick Google search turned up 7: 3 in Salt Lake City and 4 others scattered about in other "major" cities.