Governor Cox released a statement, “As pro-life advocates, this administration is equally committed to supporting women and families in Utah. We all need to do more to support mothers, pregnant women, and children facing poverty and trauma.”

Pro-Life? Supporting women and families? Where was Utah when we had a bill in the legislature to expand Medicaid for birth control? Where was Utah when more money was needed for prenatal and postnatal care? Are Utah politicians going to support these families, and provide unlimited therapy because women and children are forced to birth a child they don’t want and can’t take care of? We are about to see how Pro-Life Utah Republicans are!

Some Utah legislators in their zeal want to implement a total ban without exceptions. Will there be a Theocratic Abortion Task Force (TATF) to monitor and investigate suspicious activities and crimes pertaining to abortion? Decisions about pregnancies are no longer between families and their doctors. Will doctors, clinics, facilities, etc. be required to report pregnancies, suspicious miscarriages or statements made by a patient to TATF? Every miscarriage suddenly becomes a potential crime scene. Police may soon be the primary arbiters of whose miscarriage warrants sympathy and whose miscarriage warrants prosecution.

In post-Roe Utah, your cellphone is now a reproductive privacy risk! Will Utah start buying and subpoenaing consumer data (including health and location data from period-tracking applications) to track suspicious abortion related activities for possible prosecution?

Location data can show if a person visited an abortion clinic anywhere. Payment data can show if someone paid for a procedure. Messaging data can show if an individual talked to friends about getting an abortion. Even grocery shopping data can pose a risk. Analysis in consumer shopping history can help predict when a shopper is pregnant.

Enshrining one specific theology as law is a violation of the Establishment Clause.

Will we have enough room in our prisons to accommodate those charged under the new abortion law? If not, we can reopen Topaz. That is, after all, the last place we imprisoned Americans after their rights were taken away by the Supreme Court.

Richard Keckler

North Ogden

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