SALT LAKE CITY — Utah has filed a "friend of the court" brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade and other abortion cases.
In a filing, Utah and 23 other states urge the court to allow states to set abortion laws in a case involving Mississippi's ban on abortions after 15 weeks. The amicus brief argues that "there is no constitutional right to abortion," despite a number of Court rulings upholding abortion law.
"The time has come to return the question of abortion to where it belongs—with the States," they wrote in the filing.
Utah has banned abortion after 18 weeks, but that law is now on hold pending the outcome of the Mississippi case. Planned Parenthood and the ACLU of Utah are currently suing the state over that. The legislature has also passed a law banning all elective abortions — but that would only go into effect if Roe v. Wade is overturned.
"Regardless of one’s view of the Supreme Court’s abortion precedent, it is the Attorney General’s duty to defend the laws of the State of Utah," Utah Solicitor General Melissa Holyoak said in a statement to FOX 13 on Thursday.
"We support the petition to the Supreme Court because similar to Mississippi’s law, Utah’s law prohibiting elective abortions after 18 weeks is constitutional. Nothing in the Constitution prevents states from enacting reasonable measures to safeguard the dignity of all human beings, including the unborn. The legal challenge to Utah’s law is stayed pending the outcome of the Supreme Court’s decision, but the Attorney General’s Office will continue to vigorously defend Utah law."
Utah Senator Mike Lee recently filed his own friend of the court brief with Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Missouri Senator Josh Hawley seeking to overturn Roe.
Read the filing here:
