A few hours after a Utah Supreme Court decision sustaining, for now, a block of a 2020 law that would ban nearly all abortions in the state, Riverton Republican Sen. Dan McCay announced he’s trying to coordinate a special legislative session to shorten the window on abortions currently allowed in the state.

Despite the Legislature passing SB174 in 2020, a law that prohibited abortions at any stage of pregnancy, with certain exceptions, abortion has remained legal in Utah up to 18 weeks of gestation. McCay would like to shorten that time to up to six weeks.

It’s up to either Gov. Spencer Cox or two-thirds of the Legislature to call for a special session. McCay has notified the governor and legislative leadership, he said at a news conference, in hopes the session could take place by the end of the year.

“I know that my colleagues, at least on the Republican side, have been very supportive of pro-life measures here in Utah,” McCay said. “I have not talked to them about changing the gestational ban down to six weeks, but I’m confident that if we work through our process, work with the governor’s office, we can craft a law that will create a short-term solution while we wait for the courts’ decision.”

Cox and Republican legislative leaders said Thursday they are reviewing the court’s ruling, but did not indicate whether they would indeed support McCay’s proposal or agree to call a special session.

“Over the next few weeks, we will discuss options with Sen. McCay, lawmakers and the governor to determine the next steps,” Senate President Stuart Adams told Utah News Dispatch.

McCay, who sponsored the 2020 ban, said Thursday morning, surrounded by three anti-abortion advocates, that while he’s discouraged by the Utah Supreme Court’s ruling, he still believes it’s likely that SB174 will ultimately be found constitutional. But, for now, he called the decision a “setback.”

Gayle Ruzicka, president of the conservative Utah Eagle Forum, was among the advocates dressed in black after hearing the decision. Ruzicka said she has been fighting her entire life for the anti-abortion cause. She emphasized that the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision returned the authority on abortion to the people and their representatives.

“There’s not one place where it says it goes back to the courts, for judges to decide, for activist judges to rule that it’s OK to continue to kill these little unborn babies,” Ruzicka said.

In a virtual news conference, Planned Parenthood of Utah said McCay’s intention to roll back the state’s abortion time limit isn’t surprising and the organization is ready to fight the restrictions. Though, leaders are still unsure what a legal challenge to a potential new measure would look like.

“We will wait for anything new to develop as we continue to litigate our current case,” Kathryn Boyd, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, said on Thursday. “And should something new develop, we’ll be right there, we’ll be ready to go.”

Boyd also warned of the effect a six-week ban could have in Utah.

“When you’re talking about a six and eight, a 10 or a 12-week ban, that limits the ability for a woman to seek the care that she desires, it causes harm,” Boyd said, citing increasing maternal and infant mortality rates after the Dobbs decision.

In Thursday’s ruling, the Utah Supreme Court said that the district court “did not abuse its discretion when it concluded that (Planned Parenthood of Utah) and its patients would be irreparably harmed without the injunction.”

The case now returns to a lower court for consideration.

McCay, however, argued that there has never been a precedent that supports a constitutional right to an abortion in Utah and agreed with Chief Justice Matthew Durrant’s dissenting opinion, which stated that Planned Parenthood lacked legal standing to request an injunction and did not qualify as a plaintiff.

Though other legal challenges from pro-abortion organizers may come if the current time restriction on abortions in the state is shortened, McCay said that while the court can wait years between decisions, the Legislature can’t limit its actions “based on when the court felt like we should react.”

McCay stepped away from the comments of some of his Republican colleagues, such as Rep. Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan, who described the Supreme Court as “activist,” arguing that all five justices are Utahns, “very intelligent lawyers” and “good judges.”

The reaction mix, “is how it was all meant to be,” McCay said, with a balance of power between the legislative, judicial and executive branches.

He added that he hasn’t been part of conversations on potential changes to how the Utah Supreme Court operates.

“I think we have a process that’s existed since statehood, and I think before we make significant changes to how they work, then, we probably ought to focus on our processes and our law and make sure that what we do is measure twice and cut once,” McCay said.

Contributing: Katie McKellar

Utah News Dispatch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news source covering government, policy and the issues most impacting the lives of Utahns.

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