Capital demonstrators demand Legislature repeal Utah law aimed at ending elective abortions - Salt Lake Tribune

The demonstrators, from the Party for Socialism and Liberation, also decried legislation that would place restrictions on transgender people.

A contingent from the Salt Lake City branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation delivered a list of demands to state lawmakers on Friday — that is, after a brief setback when Utah Highway Patrol troopers forced them to turn off their public-address system.

Only a handful of people were present to listen to the address outside the Utah House chamber, which, the group said, was by design since the speeches were being live-streamed.

Their demands encompassed issues such as the right to have an abortion, critical race theory, fair pay and access to healthcare and affordable housing.

Four speakers enumerated the group’s demands and addressed several specific bills that are moving through the Legislature during the general session. They decried legislation that would place restrictions on transgender people — HB11 and HB127 — and ones that would limit the right to have an abortion.

One measure under consideration this year would require women seeking an abortion to watch an online course displaying “medically-accurate” images of the procedure and then attest under penalty of perjury that they’ve viewed the presentation from start to finish.

The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Kera Birkeland, R-Morgan, would also require the state health department to gather annual data about how many women experienced complications from an abortion and information about the procedure used in each case.

The bill, HB382, has not made any progress through the Legislature so far.

But the primary reason for Friday’s gathering was HB174, a trigger law from 2020 that would come into effect if the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade was overturned.

“Utah’s abortion trigger law, which the people in these chambers passed and signed into law two years ago, is a direct attack on the quality of life of Utah women, genderqueer people and Utah families as a whole,” speaker Dodge Hovermale said.

They continued by demanding that the law be overturned and that, regardless of what happens to Roe v. Wade, Utahns be given easy access to abortions.

Another speaker, Sam Loveland, told The Salt Lake Tribune that he questions people who advocate against abortions and refer to themselves as “pro-life” while doing nothing to help working class Americans.

“You can’t be pro-life and then also have housing be so expensive and have people not being able to access healthcare,” he said. He suggested that the attack on the decision of Roe v. Wade is part of a broader systemic issue that disadvantages the working class.

The group also charged the state Legislature with failing to step up during a health and affordable housing crisis.

“Our government meets every single year to discuss — and it votes on — bill after bill, and yet has still failed to offer us anything in the midst of a pandemic, in the midst of violence, in the midst of poverty, in the midst of lack of housing and in the midst of other people’s suffering … Abortion and all healthcare are human rights that should not, and will not, be denied to the people,” speaker Ermiya Fanaeian said.

Staff writer Bethany Rodgers contributed to this report.

source: https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2022/02/26/capital-demonstrators/

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