SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah state officials have agreed to delay the implementation of a law banning most abortions after 18 weeks of gestation to allow a legal challenge to play out in the courts.
Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes made the announcement Thursday shortly before a court hearing in which abortion-rights advocates were set to ask a judge to delay the law.
Reyes, a Republican, said in a news release that his office will still defend the constitutionality of the law passed this year, but said the delay will allow both sides to carefully build their cases.
The Planned Parenthood Association of Utah argued in the lawsuit filed last week that the law violates the U.S. Supreme Court’s longtime stance that states cannot ban abortion before the fetus is viable outside the womb.
