On the final night of the Utah legislative session, lawmakers approved a bill that would require doctors to provide additional information to women seeking a medication-induced abortion.
The billwould require doctors to inform women seeking an abortion by taking the two drug combination mifepristone and misoprostol that the procedure may be stopped after taking only the first drug. And that they quote “may still have a viable pregnancy.”
Republican Senator Lyle Hillyard asked the bill’s co-sponsor, Republican Curt Bramble, if doctors would generally agree that the statement was true.
"Is that the generally accepted medical view?" Hillyard asked on the Senate floor.
"You know we’re all entitled to our own facts. Doctors are entitled to their own facts. And the facts are that not every pregnancy is terminated upon taking this medication," Bramble said.
George Delgado, a California doctor, is frequently recognized as the source of those facts. He was cited by lawmakers on the Senate floor. But his research has been criticized in medical journals for its small sample size.
Republican Senator Brian Shiozawa is himself an emergency room physician. He voted in favor of HB141.
"There is a possibility that there may be some chance of this but they really need to talk to their own OB-GYN or doctor about this. This does not endorse that as a definitive study," Shiozawa said.
Democratic Senator Jim Dabakis opposed the bill.
"I vote no. The reason is I just don’t’ think we need a doctor, or the government between a woman and her doctor," Dabakis said.
The bill passed in the Senate by a vote of 22 to five. With all of the Democrats in the Senate opposing the bill. It now goes to the Governor for his signature.