SALT LAKE CITY – A Utah judge ruled on Tuesday that a recently passed state law banning abortion clinics cannot take effect on Wednesday as scheduled while the court deliberates over a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood.
Judge Andrew Stone's decision to grant Planned Parenthood's request will allow the four clinics that provide abortions in Utah to remain licensed to operate fully. The law would have stopped abortion clinics from getting licenses beginning on Wednesday and fazed out existing ones by next year.
In his ruling, Stone called the Utah Legislature’s objective in enacting the ban “nebulous” and agreed to delay implementing the law because Planned Parenthood had presented enough preliminary evidence to suggest it “singles out” abortion clinics without reason.
“There is nothing before the Court to indicate that an injunction would be adverse to the public interest,” Stone ruled.
Planned Parenthood argued the law would have effectively ended access to abortion throughout Utah, where clinics provide 95% of abortions.
The office of Utah's Attorney General declined to comment.
Abortion remains legal up to 18 weeks in the state as the court weighs another challenge that, if implemented, would ban abortions regardless of trimester, with several exceptions including instances of risk to maternal health as well as rape or incest reported to the police. ___ This story corrects the day the ban was to take effect to Wednesday.
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