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Nine months after Utah passed the nation's first law requiring abortion providers to administer anesthesia to fetuses, the only licensed clinic in the state says that the state is not enforcing the law.
In May 2016, Utah Governor Gary Herbert (R) signed the "Protecting Unborn Children Amendment"
law, which requires physicians to administer anesthesia or analgesic, a painkiller, to women having an abortion after 20 weeks' gestation. These painkillers are not intended to aid the pregnant women, but only to "eliminate or alleviate organic pain to the unborn child."
According to
Planned Parenthood, there are only two licensed abortion clinics in the entire state, both of which are located in Salt Lake City. However, only one of those clinics performs the elective procedure.
Dr. Leah Torres, one of the handful of physicians who performs elective abortions at the clinic, said she has been trying to comply with the law, but she doesn't know how to administer fetal anesthesia.
"I have no idea of what fetal anesthesia means," Torres told the
Standard Examiner last April. "Does that mean if I give my patient a Motrin I've now administered an analgesic to the fetus? I'm calling the governor, every day... I want to know how not to break the law."
Governor Gary Herbert (R) told the
Associated Press that physicians should direct their questions about the law to the attorney general's office.
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