Senator targets abortion cost gap

Lawmakers could be asked during their upcoming special session to consider a proposal to cover the cost of abortions for indigent women carrying fatally deformed fetuses.

But the sponsor of the proposed legislation, Sen. Curtis Bramble, R-Provo, said Wednesday that his plan to fix what he calls a "gap in coverage" is likely to be too controversial to be considered on such short notice.

Gov. Olene Walker is scheduled to meet with legislative leaders Thursday to finalize the agenda, or the call, for the special session expected to be called on Sept. 15 to deal with several issues including a tax break for soldiers serving in Iraq.

Bramble made his latest proposed abortion legislation public the same day a U.S. District Court judge in Nebraska ruled against the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Act, which is similar to a Utah law passed last session.

Both the Utah and the federal legislation ban a procedure historically performed only on women whose health was being threatened by carrying severely deformed fetuses that were not expected to live.

Bramble, who also sponsored Utah's partial-birth abortion ban, said the decision by the Nebraska court is not a setback. Utah's law is being challenged and enforcement is pending the resolution of related cases in New York and California as well as Nebraska.

"It tells me we have a problem with our judiciary. I don't think there's a problem with the law," he said. "It's not uncommon for a district judge to render an opinion . . . and then to be overturned."

Federal judges in all three states have now rejected the federal ban. But their decisions are likely to be appealed, possibly all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. "We're probably talking a couple of years," Utah Assistant Attorney General Jerrold Jensen said.

Dionne Scott, a spokeswoman for Center for Reproductive Rights that is representing the Utah Women's Clinic and the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah in their suit against the state, said the court decisions "would indicate the Utah law should fall."

The state is already in the middle of making administrative rule changes to clarify another abortion law passed last session, this one a ban on public funding for abortions. At issue is whether hospitals can perform abortions on women carrying fetuses with grave defects.

The rule change under consideration by the Utah Department of Health would permit such an abortion if a hospital can show it isn't using public funds to subsidize the procedure. The rule could be adopted as soon as Oct. 2.