A law to ban abortion clinics in Utah will be temporarily halted after a judge in the state ruled that the law, which was set to go into effect on Wednesday, will have to be held as the court considers a lawsuit by Planned Parenthood.
Third District Judge Andrew Stone granted Planned Parenthood’s request for its four Utah to continue to provide services, saying the organization had convinced the court that the ban “singles out” abortion clinics without providing a “rational basis.”
“There is nothing before the Court to indicate that an injunction would be adverse to the public interest,” Stone wrote.
The law would have barred the state from issuing licenses for new abortion clinics starting Wednesday and phased out existing licenses by next year. The state currently bans abortions after 18 weeks of pregnancy.
The law would only allow abortions to be performed in hospitals in the state, with the court pointing out in its decision that “abortions are rarely performed in hospital settings.”
Abortion advocates in the state said the decision by Stone was a “sigh of relief.”
“The court’s decision today allows people in Utah to breathe a huge sigh of relief,” Sarah Stoesz, interim president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, said in a statement. “It means that clinics can continue providing essential health care to our patients, who for months have lived in a state of chaos and confusion over the impact of this law on their lives.”
A trigger law that would ban abortions in almost all cases except for a few exceptions is also being fought in state court. The law, signed in 2020 before the fall of Roe v. Wade, was blocked by the same judge who issued Tuesday’s ruling. Planned Parenthood was the organization that sued over the near-total ban on abortions in the state.
The overturn of the Roe decision also triggered the 18-week ban, which remains in place.