When Rep. Karianne Lisonbee (R-Clearfield) entered the most important committee meeting of her career twenty minutes late with a cast on her foot, I wondered if she had been treated by her doctor. Or, had she developed her own X-rays, diagnosed the severity of the injury, and determined the appropriate course of treatment by herself. Because judging by the ensuing debate over her bill, HB467 “Abortion Changes,” Lisonbee believes her opinion should carry more weight than the expert opinions of the half-dozen Utah doctors who testified against the bill, plus the hundreds of physicians, legions of studies, and every single reputable, national medical association who has repeatedly confirmed that more abortion restrictions make pregnancy less safe for everyone.
In early May, when Lisonbee’s personal vendetta against women’s reproductive rights in the form of HB467 goes into effect, essentially bringing abortion services in Utah to a screeching halt, she will breathlessly profess that it is not a ban on abortion but rather a “change.” Her pretense has dumbfounded most other Republican lawmakers (none of them doctors) into eliminating personal decision-making power from doctors, women and Utah’s largest state agency — the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). DHHS will be prohibited from issuing or renewing licenses to medical providers like Planned Parenthood who have offered safe and affordable abortion services for decades. And, starting May 3, abortions of every kind must be performed in hospitals despite the fact that Utah hospitals currently provide less than 5% of all abortions in the state and have no plans to expand their services. This means that while abortion will remain legal in Utah up to 18 weeks gestation (as it is now), there will be no place to receive this care starting May 3.
Why? Because Lisonbee wielded the 1,000 lines of complex code in HB467 to conceal the harsh reality of the law from the almost 80% of Utahns who, when informed about the state’s current laws, said they opposed adding new abortion restrictions. It was a political strategy to distort the truth of a functional abortion ban to the 52% of Utahns who responded to a 2023 statewide survey by stating that the government should stay out of abortion decisions, leaving them instead to patients and their providers.
I am still puzzled why Lisonbee and others felt compelled to hide the abortion ban at the heart of HB467. After all, it is the outcome they have sought for years. Plus, Utah lawmakers are never reluctant to speak the quiet part out loud. After all, in 2023 the Utah Legislature voted to require a 16-year-old girl to get her parents’ permission to activate a Facebook account, and yet also voted to force that same 16-year-old to give birth to a child conceived through rape or incest. Instead of giving Utahns the freedom and autonomy to make their own personal decisions about health care (or how to raise their children), the Legislature said, “We know what is best for you,” and added a host of new criminal penalties to make sure people got in line.
Lisonbee, now in her seventh session as a lawmaker and still professing to be a “homemaker” in her official biography, has managed to insert her extremist views into almost every health-related bill during the 2023 legislative session. Her contrived whispery voice in public meetings, is a velvet hammer that squashes reasonable, dissenting views. But despite her influence, a majority of Utahns oppose the radical abortion restrictions she is trying to impose on them. And, groups like Planned Parenthood and the ACLU of Utah are seeking to block laws like HB467 in Utah courts right now. While abortion is still nominally legal in Utah today, we all need to stay aware and fight to keep it that way in the future.
Kathy Adams
Kathy Adams is a writer who lives in Salt Lake City.