This story originally appeared at ksl.com. Read it in its entirety here.
A new group calling itself Abortion-Free Utah launched a campaign Wednesday to end elective abortion in the state, while a state senator plans to run a bill to make the practice illegal in Utah.
The effort specifically targets the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah “because they are the No. 1 provider of elective abortions in the state, killing nearly 2,000 Utah babies every year,” according to the group.
“We are inviting the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah to leave the state of Utah,” Merrilee Boyack, chairwoman of Abortion-Free Utah, said at a rally at the state Capitol.
Boyack said the group’s goal is to make abortion “unthinkable.”
“We are here to save babies. That is why we are here,” she said with more than a dozen Republican lawmakers and about 200 people standing behind her, many clad in yellow T-shirts reading, “I will not stand by while unborn babies are killed by abortion.”
The campaign will include sidewalk advocacy outside Planned Parenthood clinics, an online petition, anti-abortion education resources, support for pregnancy resource centers in Utah, and calling for residents to take action in their neighborhoods and communities, according to organizers.
Karrie Galloway, Planned Parenthood of Utah chief executive officer, said the group is using “inflammatory language” to rally its cause but “that’s how they do it.”
“I’m a health care provider and we make sure we’re following the letter and the spirit of the law providing health care to the people of Utah,” she said, adding she would never advocate to deny families the right to their own self-determination.
“(Abortion-Free Utah) would like to make decisions for everyone. I wouldn’t want that responsibility,” Galloway said.
The campaign comes as Planned Parenthood is suing the state over its new law banning abortion after 18 weeks gestation. A federal judge in April barred the state from enforcing the law during the court case.
While the law shortens the legal abortion window, it maintains a woman’s right to have an elective abortion, allowing exceptions for rape, incest, life or permanent impairment of the mother, and fatal fetal defects or severe brain abnormality.
Sen. Dan McCay, R-Riverton, said he will run legislation in 2020 to end elective abortion in Utah “because it matters.” Government’s job, in many ways, is to protect those who can’t protect themselves and “when you’re an unborn child you are the most vulnerable of all of them,” he said.
McCay said the bill is currently in the draft stage and he doesn’t know what, if any exemptions, it would include.
The Alabama Legislature passed a bill last month that would ban almost all abortions in the state, setting the stage for a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court case that recognized a woman’s constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy. The law makes an exception for cases when the mother’s life is at risk, but not for rape or incest.
Utah lawmakers have not been willing to go that far, likely in part because the Alabama law is not consistent with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ stance on abortion. The church allows for exceptions in cases of rape, incest and serious harm to the life or health of the mother.
McCay said the Utah bill could include a future effective date should the U.S. Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade.
“We wouldn’t necessarily be part of litigation. We’d wait for it to be settled and then be part of it,” he said.
The left-leaning Alliance for a Better Utah called Abortion-Free Utah a “radical group aimed at undermining constitutional rights” and said that McCay’s bill does the same.
“So it is extremely distressing to see Sen. McCay and other state lawmakers trying once again to restrict the constitutional rights of Utahns,” said Lauren Simpson, policy director for Alliance for a Better Utah.
“Eliminating the right to safe abortions would have disastrous consequences for our state, leading to unsafe abortions and putting women’s lives at risk,” she said. “We know some state lawmakers have deep personal feelings about abortion, but by imposing their personal views onto state law, they are advocating for policies that would harm the constituents they were elected to serve.”
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This story originally appeared at ksl.com. Read it in its entirety here.
