White carnations representing each of the 1,746 unborn babies that were aborted in Utah in 2022 are displayed during a Pro-Life Utah memorial service at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY — A memorial was held Wednesday on the steps of the Utah Capitol, to mark the number of abortions that have occurred in Utah since a pause was placed on the state’s abortion ban.
About 100 people including Utah lawmakers and religious leaders attended the memorial. Those in attendance heard the sound of a fetal heartbeat and speeches by various religious leaders. Then a moment of silence was held.
The event concluded with a procession that carried a symbolic child’s coffin to the Memorial of the Unborn at Mount Calvary Catholic cemetery in Salt Lake City.
Pro-Life Utah estimates there have been more than 1,700 abortions since June of 2022 when the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade and sent abortion decisions back to the states.
At that time, Utah had a so-called trigger law in place. SB 174 was intended to take effect if and when Roe v. Wade was overturned. The trigger law banned most abortions in Utah. However, a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood of Utah and the American Civil Liberties Union has kept Utah’s new abortion law from taking effect.
According to the vital records website maintained by the Utah Department of Health and Human Services, in 2020 (the last year for which records are available) 2,244 females between the ages of 15 and 44 received abortions in Utah.