This is a Complaint pleading for use in litigation of the title matter. Adapt this form to comply with your facts and circumstances, and with your specific state law. Not recommended for use by non-attorneys.
This is a Complaint pleading for use in litigation of the title matter. Adapt this form to comply with your facts and circumstances, and with your specific state law. Not recommended for use by non-attorneys.
A separate state law passed last year also allows abortions up to 18 weeks of pregnancy in cases of rape or incest. Utah lawmakers passed the trigger law — one of the most restrictive in the nation — in 2020 to automatically ban most abortions should the U.S. Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade.
The law includes exceptions for pregnancies "caused by rape or incest," pregnancies that put the mother's life at risk, or "if two doctors say the fetus has a lethal defect." Rape and incest exceptions will only be viable if the crimes were previously reported to law enforcement officials.
These injunctions have allowed abortion to remain legal in Utah. On August 1, 2024, the Utah Supreme Court rejected Utah's request to overturn the injunction blocking the Trigger ban. This decision means that abortion care continues to remain legal in Utah up to 18 weeks of pregnancy, as it has since June 2022.
If you're 18 weeks, 0 days pregnant or less, it is legal for you to get an abortion in Utah. Although Utah bans abortion after 18 weeks, 0 days, many providers stop offering abortion earlier in pregnancy. If you are under the age of 18, a parent or guardian must give you permission to get an abortion.
Subject to Subsection (3), at least 24 hours before a physician performs an abortion on a minor, the physician shall notify a parent or guardian of the minor that the minor intends to have an abortion.
This decision means that abortion remains legal in Utah up to 18 weeks of pregnancy. The ban, which initially passed in 2020 and took effect in 2022 after the Dobbs decision, seeks to outlaw abortion in Utah at any point in pregnancy — with only extremely limited exceptions — and to criminalize health care providers.
Both medication and procedural (ie, surgical) abortions are legal in Utah up to 18 weeks of pregnancy. The decision on which method to use usually depends on how far along the pregnancy is.
Utah Supreme Court Upholds Temporary Injunction of Abortion Ban During Constitutional Challenge. The Utah Supreme Court held August 1 that a preliminary injunction of a state statute criminalizing most abortions should remain in place while a constitutional challenge to the law plays out.
On June 24, 2022, the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, abolishing the federal right to an abortion. As a result, the ban took effect shortly thereafter. The new abortion ban forbids all abortions in Utah with several narrow exceptions.