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SALT LAKE CITY - Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff says he will not accept private money to finance a legal fight over abortion.
Shurtleff tells the Salt Lake Tribune he will never let an outside group defend state legislation.
The Alliance Defense Fund, a group of Christian lawyers, had sent letters to two state lawmakers offering free legal defense for a bill that requires doctors to tell some women seeking an abortion about the option for fetal anesthesia and a measure that defines viability and redefines the health of the mother.
The group also offered to defend against challenges to a bill that revives a fund to collect private donations to help offset any legal fees the state would incur if it were to pass an abortion ban by 2014.
There is no current lawsuit on the table. But Shurtleff says the state is likely to be sued over at least one of the three bills Gov. Jon Huntsman signed into law on Friday.
"Now that the governor has signed them into law, we are looking forward to them being upheld in court," said Steven Aden, the Alliance Defense Fund's senior legal counsel.
The American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood Action Council have expressed constitutional concerns about House Bill 90, which redefines the viability of a fetus.
Shurtleff said groups such as the Alliance Defense Fund have in the past helped do research and write friend of the court briefs to lower costs to taxpayers, but that it's always under the direction of his office.
E-mail: aadams@ksl.com
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