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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A state lawmaker is dropping plans to reintroduce a bill that would have required doctors to tell women considering an abortion that the fetus might feel pain and that anesthesia could alleviate that pain.
Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, said his bill could have legal problems.
"We're concerned that there could be a couple of constitutional issues there," he said. "I just don't think it's prudent at this point."
Ray's fetal pain bill passed 63-8 in the House last session, but stalled in a Senate committee by one vote after doctors testified no consensus exists on whether a fetus can feel pain at that stage of a pregnancy.
Several physicians testified they wouldn't know how to administer anesthesia, which Ray's bill would require doctors to do if a woman chose it.
"I'm glad he's finally acknowledged that there may be some constitutional or actual medical and scientific problems with that bill, that's great to hear," said Karrie Galloway, executive director of Planned Parenthood of Utah.
However, Galloway is upset that Ray is focusing on another bill that that would instantly ban abortions in the state if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision legalized abortion nationwide.
"I just think this other bill that I'm working on is probably the better piece of legislation, to be quite honest with you," Ray said.
Ray is anticipating a challenge in the Supreme Court to a South Dakota measure that would outlaw nearly all abortions. South Dakota voters will decide this fall whether to uphold the legislation approved this year.
The South Dakota measure would make it a crime for doctors to perform an abortion except to save the woman's life. It would make no exception for rape or incest, but it says those women could get the morning-after pill, a high dose of the most common ingredient in regular birth control pills. When taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex, the two-pill series can lower the risk of pregnancy by up to 89 percent.
The Utah Legislature meets for 45 days beginning in January. Ray said he doesn't want the Legislature to have to wait several months to ban abortions if Roe v. Wade is overturned.
Such a statement is ridiculous, Galloway said.
"I find it amazing that legislators like Paul Ray are willing to put all of their energy into something like a trigger bill, which is so disrespectful to women in insinuating that it needs to be there because women would rush out and get abortions in a time lag," she said.
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Information from: Deseret Morning News, http://www.deseretnews.com
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
