Utah Attorney General asks for permission to appeal trigger law injunction

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Attorney General’s Office wants to appeal a preliminary injunction of SB174, Utah’s “trigger law” prohibiting most abortions in the state.

The Utah AG has asked the Utah Supreme Court for permission to appeal the injunction issued by a district court. The injunction bars enforcement of SB 174 until a lawsuit in the district court has been resolved.

Planned Parenthood won the injunction of Utah’s ban on abortions, which put the law on hold while the lawsuit winds through the courts.

Defense attorney, KSL at Night host and legal analyst Greg Skordas explained the AG’s petition saying, “Planned Parenthood filed their lawsuit to stay the execution of the trigger law. The judge granted that stay temporarily. And now the Attorney General’s Office has filed a petition for the Supreme Court to set that [stay] aside while the case proceeds.”

If the petition is accepted, the Utah Supreme Court will decide on whether Utah’s abortion trigger law can take effect while the lawsuit is sorted out.

The decision represents a step in the process to challenge the preliminary injunction. It does not resolve whether SB174 is constitutional or not.

Related reading:

• Temporary stay issued for Utah’s trigger law
• SB 174, the Utah trigger law that bans most abortions
• Lawmaker seeks to remove felony statute from Utah’s abortion trigger law

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