Site Index

Summary: Discover why Utahns are losing the battle against infanticide, and how we can turn the tide.

Abortion. Feticide. Infanticide. To most people, these words invoke feelings of revulsion, coupled with a sense of hopelessness. We have been taught to believe that there is nothing one person can do to prevent or limit these atrocities.

Citizens have been indoctrinated to accept certain myths that prevent them from seeing clearly their personal power to make a difference. Below are five of the most common myths — or lies — that Accountability Utah encounters in its efforts to protect the unborn.

Top

We have been taught that abortion is a problem primarily experienced in other states, and that they occur only rarely in Utah. State Senator David Gladwell, who claims to be a "pro-life" Republican, told an audience of delegates at his county party's organizing convention on May 9, 2003:

"We really have very little — to my knowledge no — abortions being performed in the state of Utah."

Sen. Gladwell, like every senator, was given ample evidence to the contrary during the last legislative session. According to Planned Parenthood's own statistics, in 2001 alone, 3,289 abortions were performed in Utah. Only 30 resulted from rape and 6 were supposedly performed to protect the "life of the mother." While Planned Parenthood does not directly perform abortions in Utah, it does work closely with state-licensed hospitals and so-called "clinics" that do perform and/or promote abortions.
(Note: C. Everett Koop, M.D., former U.S. Surgeon General, stated: "Protection of the life of the mother as an excuse for an abortion is a smoke screen. In my 36 years of pediatric surgery, I have never known of one instance where the child had to be aborted to save the mother's life. If toward the end of the pregnancy complications arise that threaten the mother's health, the doctor will induce labor or perform a Caesarean section. His intention is to save the life of both the mother and the baby. The baby's life is never willfully destroyed because the mother's life is in danger.")

Abortion advocates also misleadingly claim that Utah already has the toughest abortion laws on the books, and therefore we need no additional laws. Unfortunately, the current statute (76-7-302) is meaningless and unenforceable due to federal court decisions such as Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton (The courts have not struck down the Utah law that requires abortions to be performed by a licensed physician, and, if the unborn child is 90 days or more, in a licensed state hospital or "clinic." This is by no means a protection for the unborn.).

Top

Contrary to popular myth, many of these state-licensed facilities receive direct and/or indirect taxpayer funding via the State of Utah's public employee health insurance plan, special exemptions, and almost certainly government grants.

Accountability Utah has not yet obtained financial statements of the supposedly private organizations that perform abortions. Planned Parenthood, however, promotes the use of taxpayer funds to promote abortions, works closely with state-licensed organizations that perform abortions, and may provide a birds-eye view into the relationship between Utah abortion providers and Utah government.

According to Planned Parenthood's IRS Form 990, in its fiscal year ending June 30, 2002, it received $2,690,495 in government grants and $839,229 in Medicare/Medicaid payments. This does not include possible indirect insurance payments and patient fees that came from other government sources. Planned Parenthood's total revenue for that year was only $6,666,588. In addition to this revenue from government sources, the Utah Department of Health, Division of Laboratory Services is listed as one of Planned Parenthood's top five paid independent contractors at $152,410.

Top

Many Utahns believe that national groups and efforts offer the only remote hope to end abortion. In return for membership contributions, these organizations promise to attack Roe v. Wade and other landmark abortion rulings. While a few angles still have some merit at the national level (such as returning the entire issue of abortion to the states for each state to deal with on its own), these efforts are usually a waste of time and resources.

As Nick Nikkas, lead counsel for the renowned Americans United for Life, has indicated in interviews with Accountability Utah, the U.S. Supreme Court is dominated by abortion advocates who are not likely to significantly alter their stands in the foreseeable future.

Few Utah citizens are aware, however, of successful state efforts to limit abortions. In 1984, for example, Colorado citizens overwhelmingly passed a statewide initiative to amend their constitution and eliminate any direct or indirect funding for abortion on demand. Their initiative has withstood constitutional challenges — though in order to receive Medicaid funding, they must also permit abortion funding in the case of rape or incest. As a result of this initiative, Colorado's abortions have dramatically declined — at a much faster rate than in Utah.

Last session, House Bill 123, Substitute 6 was introduced by Representative Morgan Philpot. This bill was modeled almost entirely upon Colorado's initiative. Had HB 123 S6 passed, Utah would no longer have forced taxpayers to directly and indirectly pay for abortion procedures performed for any reason other than to save the life of the mother, incest, rape, or to prevent "permanent, irreparable, and grave damage" to a major bodily function of the pregnant woman."

The bill could have been stronger without this last, additional exception, but HB 123 S6 was still a great start and would have been expected to pass constitutional muster.

Top

For years, Utahns have been lulled into accepting false campaign promises from so-called "pro-life" Republican candidates. Unfortunately, Republican elected officials, including the senate leadership, rank and file senators, and Governor Leavitt have repeatedly killed opportunities to pass meaningful, constitutional bills and resolutions designed to restrict abortion.

House Bill 123 S6 as well as House Bill 241, which attempted to end partial birth abortions, were both passed by the Utah House of Representatives and were received by the Utah Senate more than a week before the session was to end. Despite thousands of calls, e-mails, and conversations with concerned citizens, senators utterly refused to let these bills out of committee and to the floor for a vote.

On the last night of the session, horrified citizens watched angrily as Republican and Democrat senators joined together to filibuster and kill these bills. Though some meaningless gestures were made in the final minutes, not one senator would speak up for, or vote for, the life of the unborn at critical junctures.
Hear their cowardly silence from senate audio tape clips on motions made by Senate Majority Leader Michael Waddoups to move HJR28, HB306S2, HB309, and HCR14 ahead of the anti-infanticide bills.

At one point, the senators erupted in hysterical laughter as Sen. Ron Allen made light of the effort to filibuster the bills. The unborn had no advocate in the Senate that fateful night. Listen to their sickening laughter.
Background: With less than 5 minutes remaining in the session, one anti-infanticide bill, HB 241, was briefly "debated" in the Senate. Democrat Ron Allen proposed to gut HB 241 with his own substitute bill.  Republican Chris Buttars, senate sponsor of HB 241, could not seem to find his copy of Allen’s substitute.
See our Infanticide Report for additional background. (This is a .wav file.  If you have a slow connection, right click on the laugh link above and select "Save Target As" to save the file to your hard drive before you play it.)  You can also try this smaller file.

Republican Senate Majority Leader Michael Waddoups, who repeatedly made motions to delay and postpone the anti-infanticide bills, clearly explained why they died:

"They die because House leaders don't prioritize them so we don't deal with them. They die because the sponsors don't get them moved through the process fast enough. And they die, quite frankly, because they aren't important enough." ("Conservative groups ranks GOP Senate worst-ever," Bob Bernick Jr., Deseret News, May 13, 2003)

Of the three statements, one was accurate — the murder of children is not "important enough." (For official senate audio and written records, as well as first-hand citizen testimony regarding the senate's blatant, shameful filibuster of HB 123 S6 and HB 241 in the last session, see our Infanticide Report.)

Governor Leavitt has also utterly refused to act on meaningful legislation like HB 123 S6, even though he has the power call a special session at any time and put taxpayer funding of infanticide on the agenda. Leavitt's spokesperson Natalie Gochnour defended his refusal to the Deseret News on August 5, 2003, explaining that Leavitt only "agrees to place items on such a call if they can't wait until a general session and if most legislators want to consider those items in a special session." According to Gochnour:

"Those (two abortion bills) have not met that criteria yet." Leavitt has already called one special session and will likely call another one in October.

The facts demonstrate that both the Republican two-thirds super-majority in the Senate and Republican Governor do not feel that curtailing abortion meets their criteria for action. Their actions demonstrate support for abortion and unwillingness to prevent the slaughter of unborn children. The finger of blame can no longer point to Democrats.

Top

Utahns get sensitive when religion is brought into politics, but the facts are plain: No pastors, bishops, or preachers were present — from any religious institution — to actively fight for the rights of the unborn on the last night of the session. Only a tired few citizens stood in the gap to desperately promote HB 123 S6 and HB 241.

This is not meant as an indictment against any particular religion, but against the mistaken belief many citizens have that someone or something else is going to take care of our societal problems for us. It is time for each individual to step up and fight — as individual members of the community — for things that matter.

Top

Abortion advocates are clear and determined on their stand that a woman's "right" to abort her child is more important than the life of the child. Though some of them publicly claim to prefer that women put unwanted children up for adoption, they utterly refuse to bend on their support of the practice. They will shout, march, sue, vote, and demand to get their way.

Anti-abortionists, on the other hand, are unclear and unfocused. They are even divided on when they call an abortion murder and when they call it ok. Their division creates holes for the enemy to shoot through.

Top

It is time to explode the myths that keep Utah citizens from asserting their personal and collective power to stop evils like abortion. It is time for citizens, including Republicans, to end the corrupt political machine that rules over them and to hold their officials accountable for their actions.

Top

If you have comments or suggestions, please email us at info@accountabilityutah.org.

Home | Issues & Alerts | Mission | AU Team | Reports | Citizen Library | Other Resources

Address: P.O. Box 141, West Jordan, Utah 84084
E-mail: info@accountabilityutah.org  |  Website: www.accountabilityutah.org