Abortion In Utah
Abortion in Utah is legal however only 47% of adults said in a poll by the Pew Research Center that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
There were 2,948 legal abortions in 2014, and 3,176 in 2015.
Terminology
The abortion debate most commonly relates to the "induced abortion" of an embryo or fetus at some point in a pregnancy, which is also how the term is used in a legal sense. Some also use the term "elective abortion", which is used in relation to a claim to an unrestricted right of a woman to an abortion, whether or not she chooses to have one. The term elective abortion or voluntary abortion describes the interruption of pregnancy before viability at the request of the woman, but not for medical reasons.
Anti-abortion advocates tend to use terms such as "unborn baby", "unborn child", or "pre-born child", and see the medical terms "embryo", "zygote", and "fetus" as dehumanizing. Both "pro-choice" and "pro-life" are examples of terms labeled as political framing: they are terms which purposely try to define their philosophies in the best possible light, while by definition attempting to describe their opposition in the worst possible light. "Pro-choice" implies that the alternative viewpoint is "anti-choice", while "pro-life" implies the alternative viewpoint is "pro-death" or "anti-life". The Associated Press encourages journalists to use the terms "abortion rights" and "anti-abortion".
Context
Free birth control correlates to teenage girls having a fewer pregnancies and fewer abortions. A 2014 New England Journal of Medicine study found such a link. At the same time, a 2011 study by Center for Reproductive Rights and Ibis Reproductive Health also found that states with more abortion restrictions have higher rates of maternal death, higher rates of uninsured pregnant women, higher rates of infant and child deaths, higher rates of teen drug and alcohol abuse, and lower rates of cancer screening.
According to a 2017 report from the Center for Reproductive Rights and Ibis Reproductive Health, states that tried to pass additional constraints on a women's ability to access legal abortions had fewer policies supporting women's health, maternal health and children's health. These states also tended to resist expanding Medicaid, family leave, medical leave, and sex education in public schools. According to Megan Donovan, a senior policy manager at the Guttmacher Institute, states have legislation seeking to protect a woman's right to access abortion services have the lowest rates of infant mortality in the United States.
Poor women in the United States had problems paying for menstrual pads and tampons in 2018 and 2019. Almost two-thirds of American women could not pay for them. These were not available through the federal Women, Infants, and Children Program (WIC). Lack of menstrual supplies has an economic impact on poor women. A study in St. Louis found that 36% had to miss days of work because they lacked adequate menstrual hygiene supplies during their period. This was on top of the fact that many had other menstrual issues including bleeding, cramps and other menstrual induced health issues. This state was one of a majority that taxed essential hygiene products like tampons and menstrual pads as of November 2018.
History
Legislative history
By 1950, the state legislature would pass a law that stating that a woman who had an abortion or actively sought to have an abortion regardless of whether she went through with it were guilty of a criminal offense. Since the early 1980s, Planned Parenthood has been Utah's only Title X grantee and only abortion service provider in the state.
The state was one of 23 states in 2007 to have a detailed abortion-specific informed consent requirement. The informed consent materials in South Dakota, Texas, Utah and West Virginia given to women seeking abortions include counseling materials that say women who have abortions may have suicidal thoughts or they may experience "postabortion traumatic stress syndrome." The latter syndrome is not recognized by American Psychological Association or the American Psychiatric Association. In 2013, state Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP) law applied to medication induced abortions and private doctor offices in addition to abortion clinics. There was a pending bill in Utah in early 2018 to prohibit women from requesting their doctors perform abortions as a result of getting a Down syndrome diagnosis during her pregnancy. The bill was co-sponsored by Republican state Sen. Curt Bramble. In 2019, only 24% of the state legislators were female.
Judicial history
The US Supreme Court's decision in 1973's Roe v. Wade ruling meant the state could no longer regulate abortion in the first trimester.
Clinic history
Between 1982 and 1992, the number of abortion clinics in the state declined by one, going from seven in 1992 to six in 1992. In 1996, the state had 7 abortion clinics and was one of only three to gain clinics in the period between 1982 and 1996. In 2014, there were two abortion clinics in the state. In 2014, 97% of the counties in the state did not have an abortion clinic. That year, 62% of women in the state aged 15 – 44 lived in a county without an abortion clinic. In March 2016, there were 9 Planned Parenthood clinics in the state. In 2017, there were 9 Planned Parenthood clinics in a state with a population of 727,940 women aged 15 – 49 of which 1 offered abortion services. In March 2019, Planned Parenthood Association of Utah was the only abortion provider in the state.
Statistics
In the period between 1972 and 1974, there were zero recorded illegal abortion deaths in the state. In 1990, 202,000 women in the state faced the risk of an unintended pregnancy. In 2013, among white women aged 15–19, there were abortions 290, 10 abortions for black women aged 15–19, 60 abortions for Hispanic women aged 15–19, and 20 abortions for women of all other races. In 2014, 47% of adults said in a poll by the Pew Research Center that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. In 2017, the state had an infant mortality rate of 5.9 deaths per 1,000 live births.
| Census division and state | Number | Rate | % change 1992–1996 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | 1995 | 1996 | 1992 | 1995 | 1996 | ||
| US total | 1,528,930 | 1,363,690 | 1,365,730 | 25.9 | 22.9 | 22.9 | –12 |
| Mountain | 69,600 | 63,390 | 67,020 | 21 | 17.9 | 18.6 | –12 |
| Arizona | 20,600 | 18,120 | 19,310 | 24.1 | 19.1 | 19.8 | –18 |
| Colorado | 19,880 | 15,690 | 18,310 | 23.6 | 18 | 20.9 | –12 |
| Idaho | 1,710 | 1,500 | 1,600 | 7.2 | 5.8 | 6.1 | –15 |
| Montana | 3,300 | 3,010 | 2,900 | 18.2 | 16.2 | 15.6 | –14 |
| Nevada | 13,300 | 15,600 | 15,450 | 44.2 | 46.7 | 44.6 | 1 |
| New Mexico | 6,410 | 5,450 | 5,470 | 17.7 | 14.4 | 14.4 | –19 |
| Utah | 3,940 | 3,740 | 3,700 | 9.3 | 8.1 | 7.8 | –16 |
| Wyoming | 460 | 280 | 280 | 4.3 | 2.7 | 2.7 | –37 |
| Location | Residence | Occurrence | % obtained by
out-of-state residents |
Year | Ref | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Rate^ | Ratio^^ | No. | Rate^ | Ratio^^ | ||||
| Utah | 2,905 | 4.5 | 57 | 2,948 | 4.6 | 58 | 6.1 | 2014 | |
| Utah | 3,123 | 4.8 | 62 | 3,176 | 4.9 | 63 | 6 | 2015 | |
| Utah | 2,956 | 4.5 | 59 | 3,008 | 4.5 | 60 | 6.6 | 2016 | |
| ^number of abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44; ^^number of abortions per 1,000 live births | |||||||||
Abortion rights views and activities
Protests
Women from the state participated in marches supporting abortion rights as part of a #StoptheBans movement in May 2019.
Anti-abortion activities
Activism
Much of the anti-abortion movement in the United States and around the world finds support in the Roman Catholic Church, the Christian right, the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, the Church of England, the Anglican Church in North America, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS).
The position of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) is that "elective abortion for personal or social convenience is contrary to the will and the commandments of God" but that abortion may be justified where the pregnancy endangers life of the mother, or where the pregnancy is the outcome of rape or incest.
Footnotes
- ^ According to the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade:
Likewise, Black's Law Dictionary defines abortion as "knowing destruction" or "intentional expulsion or removal".(a) For the stage prior to approximately the end of the first trimester, the abortion decision and its effectuation must be left to the medical judgement of the pregnant woman's attending physician. (b) For the stage subsequent to approximately the end of the first trimester, the State, in promoting its interest in the health of the mother, may, if it chooses, regulate the abortion procedure in ways that are reasonably related to maternal health. (c) For the stage subsequent to viability, the State in promoting its interest in the potentiality of human life may, if it chooses, regulate, and even proscribe, abortion except where it is necessary, in appropriate medical judgement, for the preservation of the life or health of the mother.