Christi Terry: Utah abortion law would deny women their own bodily autonomy

Utah has adopted a trigger law that would make abortions illegal and will be enacted automatically if Roe v. Wade is overturned, which we now know is likely. Our Republican representatives are happy for this, as it means local state control of abortion. But I argue that there is no more local control than allowing a woman herself to make these decisions.

There were 3,082 abortions in Utah reported in 2018 with more than 83% occurring before 10 weeks. The new law would ban abortion after implantation of the fertilized egg, which occurs around day six. Exceptions are rape, incest, life of mother, the serious risk of irreversible, substantial impairment of a major bodily function of the woman or the fetus has a lethal or severe brain abnormality.

At implantation, the blastocyst (a fertilized egg at implantation) consists of about 70 to 300 cells. After the development of the amniotic sac, the blastocyst is termed an embryo. The embryo is called a fetus at around nine weeks after fertilization of the egg, and is called that until birth. Thus, I use the terms blastocyst, embryo and fetus, as the trigger law restricts abortion at all these stages.

Upon enactment, the state of Utah will restrict a woman’s rights to bodily autonomy, self-ownership and self-determination, and instill rights superior to hers to the developing blastocyst/embryo/fetus. A 2020 poll of Utah residents reported that 70% preferred that the current abortion law remains the same or be made less strict. Based on this poll, if the abortion ban were placed on the ballot, voters would reject it.

Utah does not allow forced organ donation to save the life of another person, even if that person is their own child. The state of Utah does not even allow organs to be harvested from a dead person if that person said no prior to death. So, one could say that upon enactment of the trigger law, a corpse will have more bodily autonomy than a pregnant woman.

There is no established scientific or moral consensus on when personhood begins but some believe it begins at conception. The “personhood begins at conception” camp may vehemently argue with the “personhood begins at implantation” camp about personhood rights for frozen in-vitro fertilized eggs. However, both camps require personhood rights be applied to an entity that has not even a faint resemblance of a human brain. The fertilized egg/blastocyst only has potential for the brain and this potential outranks the pregnant woman’s rights to bodily autonomy and self-determination.

The law allows abortion when there is a fetal brain abnormality that would cause the baby to live in a mentally vegetative state. Yet the law does not allow the termination when the fetus hasn’t yet developed a rudimentary resemblance of a brain.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Dan McCay, said “Life is a creation that is brought to us by a divine personage.” Yet those who do not believe pregnancy is a divine act are forced to remain pregnant. If abortion is wrong before viability because religious faith dictates, then restricting such abortion is state establishment of religion.

The state is not enacting laws that cover the cost of pregnancy/childrearing, nor for compensation if a woman is physically harmed or has extraordinary medical bills because of forced pregnancy. It will not pay for income lost due to pregnancy, which assuredly will occur. The state claims it values life so much it will put a woman’s future at risk and curtail her bodily autonomy, but these claims are not supported by laws that help pregnant women.

It restricts only women’s rights to bodily autonomy and puts no burden on the father. The law is inconsistent in its value set, claiming rights for blastocysts/embryos prior to brain development, but not for fetuses with major brain abnormalities. It claims rights for fetuses conceived in consent, but not for those that are the product of rape or incest. It puts women at risk of severe injury or death by inserting law enforcement into the emergency room when a doctor must consider their own arrest when evaluating a pregnancy problem. And it will result in children being born into circumstances that are not ideal for raising a healthy, happy, law-abiding citizen of Utah.

The state should focus their efforts on preventing unwanted pregnancies, such as education and birth control assistance. Colorado has cut abortion rates for women aged 15-19 almost in half by providing contraception to low-income women. Here, more should be done to ensure women aren’t faced with unwanted pregnancies and to help women carry wanted pregnancies and raise wanted children. This is where our focus should be.

Christi Terry, Park City, has a Ph.D. in pharmacology and toxicology from the University of Utah and was a researcher at the U. School of Medicine for many years before taking a position in private industry as a medical science liaison. She recently retired.