A group of Christian lawyers has offered to fight for free any constitutional challenges to three abortion-related bills signed Friday by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., but Attorney General Mark Shurtleff immediately rejected the offer.
"I will not turn over the defense of state legislation to any outside group ever," Shurtleff said Monday.
The Alliance Defense Fund sent letters to Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, and Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman, offering free legal defense for Wimmer's HB22, which requires physicians to tell women seeking abortions of the option for fetal anesthesia, and Ray's HB90, which defines viability and redefines the health of a mother. The group also offered to defend against any challenge to HB114, which revives an existing fund that would collect private donations to defend anti-abortion laws.
"Now that the governor has signed them into law, we are looking forward to them being upheld in court," said Steven Aden, ADF senior legal counsel.
Shurtleff calls the three bills "defensible" but had advised lawmakers to wait for similar bills to play out in other states. Now, he says it's "likely" the state will be sued over at least one of the bills.
There currently are no pending legal challenges, but several groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah and the Planned Parenthood Action Council, have said they had constitutional concerns with HB90.
"HB90 is little different from the post-viability abortion statute that was invalidated in the 1990s," said Missy Bird, executive director of PPAC. "Who knows what the fallout will be?"
The group has argued that the law defines viability of a fetus in a way that may not require a likelihood of sustained survival outside the womb.
Aden says those concerns are just "splitting hairs" and that the language is "perfectly consistent" with Supreme Court rulings.
Before this year's legislative session began, Wimmer had wanted to run a bill banning most abortions in the state. He said there was an organization willing to defend the ban and pay for the legal challenges, but Shurtleff refused.
"I talked to him then and said 'No, we will defend the laws,'" Shurtleff said.
Shurtleff, said, however, groups such as the Alliance Defense Fund have in the past helped do research and write friend of the court briefs to lower costs to taxpayers, "but it's always under my office's direction."
The nonprofit ADF has been helping the A.G.'s Office with the American Atheists, Inc. v. Duncan case, in which the atheists are suing the Utah Highway Patrol Association for using large crosses to signify where a trooper has died.
