Bill to clarify abortion language wins committee approval

SALT LAKE CITY — A bill that would remove any immunity from criminal prosecution for Utah women seeking illegal abortions was approved unanimously by a legislative committee Tuesday.

After some debate over whether HB12 clarifies the state's abortion language at the risk of incriminating or implying culpability in the death of a fetus through miscarriage, Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman, agreed to draft an amendment specifically exempting spontaneous miscarriages.

The impetus of the bill is a ruling, now under appeal, by a state judge that a Vernal woman cannot be prosecuted for paying a man $150 to beat her in an attempt to abort her fetus. The man who beat the woman is in jail, and the baby, ultimately safely delivered and now 5 months old, has been placed with an adoptive family.

Christopher Ballard, with the Utah attorney general's office, said in his decade of experience he has yet to see any woman charged with a homicide when the cause of fetal death was miscarriage. (There are an estimated 6,000 miscarriages a year in Utah.) The first time anyone realized that the state's abortion laws didn't address prosecution of a woman who seeks an illegal abortion was in the Vernal case, he added.

George Chapman, a Utah resident, spoke against the measure, calling it a "once in a blue moon law," deeming it as necessary "as making it illegal to jump in front of a running grizzly bear. Who pays to get themselves beat up? Do we really need a law for this?" He added that if the state "really wants to reduce the number of abortions, you would pass legislation to teach comprehensive sex education in the schools."

The adoptive mother of the baby involved in the beating incident said she supports Wimmer's bill and is "so grateful that the attempt on her life was unsuccessful. A pregnant woman is the steward of her baby. … She is a beautiful child with a strong future ahead of her."

Wimmer said the case might be rare, but "this is one of those times when justice was called for but left wanting. Justice was not served in this case."

The bill clarifies that a woman is not criminally liable for seeking an abortion that is permitted under current law. Also, a woman is not guilty of criminal homicide of an unborn child if the sole reason for the death of the unborn child is that the person refused to consent to medical treatment, a Cesarean section or failed to follow medical advice.

e-mail: jthalman@desnews.com