House OKs fund to cover costs of abortion fight

House members, with only a short debate, approved a bill Thursday that would set up a fund for private contributions aimed at defending any future anti-abortion laws.

HB144 passed 47-16, with only Democrats voting against it.

Basically, the bill sets up, for a second time, a trust account into which private citizens can donate money.

Sponsor Rep. Ken Sumsion, R-American Fork, said when the fund reached $1 million or $2 million — whatever amount Attorney General Mark Shurtleff believed was adequate to fight a federal lawsuit all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court — "we can then move on a bill" to tighten current abortion law.

That way, Sumsion said, it wouldn't cost Utah taxpayers any money to defend a new anti-abortion state law.

In fact, HB114 was amended on the floor to specifically prohibit the state from putting any taxpayer money into the anti-abortion account. "Only private funds would be allowed," said Rep. Stephen Sandstorm, R-Orem.

The Legislature set up a similar account in the early 1990s after the state spent more than $1 million defending an anti-abortion law.

Unfortunately for pro-lifers, Utah's law was struck down in a federal appeals court after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Roe v. Wade's basic protections in another state's challenge.

Only around $12,000 was donated to that earlier fund, and it was finally drained several years later after no anti-abortion laws passed the Legislature.

Sumsion noted that if five years passed and the state hadn't used the new, private anti-abortion fund on appeals, monies would not be returned to contributors but given to state agencies to help with adoptions.

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