31 Jan 2021
Republican-led states, such as Utah, are pushing for legislation that seeks to protect pregnant women and their unborn babies.
Utah Rep. Brady Brammer (R) is sponsoring HB 113, a bill that would ensure biological fathers are financially responsible for half of the mother’s out-of-pocket pregnancy costs. The measure passed a Utah House committee Wednesday, 8-1.
The
Salt Lake Tribune said Brammer hopes the legislation increases “the responsibility for men in the bringing of life into the world.”
“Oftentimes there’s this battle between pro-life and pro-choice where some of the pro-life positions really turn into a perception that it’s just anti-abortion,” Brammer told the state House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. “I kind of got sick of those things and I thought what could we do that’s really a pro-life thing? … and so that’s where this bill came from.”
| Updated: 2:57 p.m.
A bill now before the state Legislature would compel Utah women seeking an abortion to watch an online course displaying “medically-accurate” images of the procedure and then attest under penalty of perjury that they’ve viewed the presentation from start to finish.
Completing this online module is already a mandatory step before an abortion in Utah although right-wing advocates argue the current informed process is too porous and believe women might be skimming over or skipping the course. But abortion rights groups see these new proposed restrictions as yet another episode in a long campaign to block access to pregnancy-ending procedures in Utah.
Under HB231, anyone who transports aborted or miscarried fetal remains outside of the state, or who arranges to do so, could face a class B misdemeanor. The bill would not apply to fetuses less than 20 weeks gestational age.