In January of 1973, Roe v. Wade was decided by the United States Supreme Court. This protected a pregnant individual’s liberty to choose to have an abortion.
This held for nearly 50 years, but was overturned on June 24 by the Supreme Court, which has faced a large amount of backlash, support and debate. The overturning means that there is no longer a federal constitutional right to an abortion and going forward, abortion rights will be determined by states.
For pregnant individuals in Utah, this means that an abortion may be performed in the state only by a physician and under certain circumstances. These circumstances, as listed in Utah Code section 76-7-302, are if the unborn child is not viable or the abortion is necessary to avert the death of the woman on whom the abortion is performed. Another circumstance is the serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of the woman on whom the abortion is performed.
The code continues that abortion may be performed if two physicians that practice maternal fetal medicine concur, in writing, that the fetus has a defect that is uniformly diagnosed and uniformly lethal or the fetus has a sever brain abnormality that is uniformly diagnosable.
Abortion is legal in Utah if the pregnancy is the result of rape, rape of a child or incest. However, there are many states that are putting much stricter laws against abortion into action as a result of the overturning. This has caused a great upset for many and, on Monday evening, a women’s rights rally was hosted in the Price City Peace Gardens.
Beginning at 5 p.m., community members gathered in the garden with signs to peacefully protest the overturning of Roe v. Wade. The signs held up in protest had messages clearly stating the unhappiness with the Supreme Court’s decision.
