(Headline USA) Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said Friday that he plans to sign a measure that would ban abortion clinics from operating in the state.
After passing through the state Senate on Thursday with minor amendments, it returned to the Utah House of Representatives Friday morning, where it was approved and then sent to the governor for final approval. The move comes less than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision, returning the power to regulate abortions to states.
Cox told reporters that he will sign the legislation.
The measure is one of several that members of Utah’s Republican-supermajority statehouse has passed this year while abortion restrictions approved in years past are on hold because of a state court injunction.
Republican lawmakers’ push to shutter abortion clinics comes as red states throughout the country work to implement restrictions after the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
In Utah, the ruling triggered two previously passed laws — a 2019 ban on abortion after 18 weeks and a 2020 ban on abortions regardless of trimester.
The clinic-centered push in Utah is unique among states with trigger laws, where many abortion clinics closed after last year’s Supreme Court decision including in West Virginia and Mississippi. The measure mirrors a raft of proposals passed in red states in the decade before Roe was overturned when pro-life lawmakers passed measures regulating clinics.
In Utah, the proposal from Rep. Karianne Lisonbee would require all abortions — via medication or surgery — be provided in hospitals by not allowing new clinics to be licensed after May 2 and not allowing any to operate once their licenses expire. It would affect the operations of the four clinics that provide abortions in Utah — three run by Planned Parenthood and the other by Wasatch Women’s Center, an independent clinic in Salt Lake City.
In Utah last year, clinics provided most abortions.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
