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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Abortions not performed by a doctor through a medical procedure would be illegal under a measure the Utah House approved Friday over objections it could lead to authorities harassing women who have natural miscarriages.
The bill sponsored by Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman, was prompted by a case in Uintah County in which prosecutors said a pregnant 17-year-old girl paid a man $150 to beat her after her boyfriend threatened a breakup if she didn't get rid of the child.
Court records state the man attacked her, leaving bruises on her stomach and a bite mark on her neck. The baby survived and has since been adopted.
The girl pleaded no contest in June to a second-degree felony count of criminal solicitation to commit murder.
But that charge was dismissed by Juvenile Court Judge Larry Steele, who ruled that she was seeking an abortion and was not criminally liable.
"Abortion was so widely defined that it could mean anything -- any attempt to terminate a pregnancy," Wimmer said.
Wimmer's bill clarifies that abortions are legal and protected from prosecution.
Terminating a pregnancy in a way that's not covered could lead to a charge of criminal homicide, a second-degree felony.
A criminal exemption for women who seek illegal abortions would also be removed from state law.
Several lawmakers said they're worried the bill could lead to unnecessary emotional heartache for women who had miscarriages in the event authorities were called to investigate a suspicious miscarriage.
"It makes them subject to overly aggressive interrogation and suspicion from investigative officials and prosecutors and takes what is already not only a physically, but emotionally painful and traumatic event, and has the potential to worsen it," said Rep. Christine Johnson, a Salt Lake City Democrat who is pregnant. "I wouldn't want people who know I stand on the side of women's reproductive freedom to be suspicious that I would've done something."
House Bill 12 was approved 59-12 and now advances to the Senate.
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