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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- After a senator alluded to the Nazi slaughter of Jews, the Utah Senate on Monday passed a bill that would ban a certain type of abortion.
The bill, which had 22 co-sponsors and passed 25-3, would broaden the state's law to ban any overt act, other than completion of delivery, that kills a "partially living" fetus, including a saline injection. It now goes to the House for consideration.
Telling a story about a man in Nazi Germany who resisted orders to kill, Sen. Bill Wright, R-Elberta, said resistance to the Partial Birth Abortion law amendments was evidence of a "common disrespect for life."
The bill, whose main sponsor is Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, makes exception for women who could die if they don't have abortions, but doesn't exempt possible health threats. Opponents of the amendments say that without a specific exemption for the woman's health, the bill won't pass a constitutional test based on U.S. Supreme Court decisions during the past 30 years.
The federal Act of 2003 has been stayed until its own constitutionality questions can be tested in court.
A committee approved the bill last week with a request that legislative counsel look closely at the bill's possible unconstitutionality.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
