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Utah Government
Takes Another Stab at Unborn
(Alert for 9/7/04
—
Last Updated on
1/23/06)
 Update!
Despite unanimous citizen input against it at the September
hearing, this revised ruling (R414-1B) passed. Taxpayer funding of
frivolous abortions is once again authorized. See a
flyer
on sen. Curt Bramble's betrayal. Also note that
legislators must vote each year to reject or pass this rule.
See how your legislators voted to approve taxpayer funded
murder in our
2005 Legislative Performance Report.
"The
sovereign authority in any country is the power
of making laws..." — Thomas Paine, Rights of Man
 Summary:
The Utah Department of Health, in collaboration with various
officials, has published a
new "ruling" that would allow taxpayer resources such as
equipment, facilities, and employees to be used for
all types of abortion on demand. Citizens will again
demand a public hearing. Take action.
Topics:
1. Background of
Deceit & Manipulation
2. Taxpayer Assets
Again Used in Abortions
3. TAKE ACTION! The
Buck Stops with Your Legislators
1. Background of Deceit & Manipulation
If you missed the history of the
battle to end taxpayer funding of abortion on demand, we
recommend that you see our
previous alert
on the July 19 public hearing, our
original alert
on UDOH's first "ruling", and our
alert on
various officials such as Gov. Walker and Sen. Bramble who
publicly advocate forcing taxpayers to fund euthanasia in the
womb.
As a brief recap,
over 3,200 frivolous abortions are performed in Utah every
year, many of which are funded by tax dollars.
Senate Bill 68,
passed last session, made it less convenient to obtain
abortions on demand by protecting taxpayers from
being forced to directly or indirectly fund the procedures.
SB 68 was extremely effective at
ending abortions in Utah hospitals. According to the
Salt Lake Tribune:
"The law, which took effect
May 3, cuts off public funding to any agency that performs
abortions except in cases of rape, incest or severe damage
to a 'major bodily function' of the mother. Fearing the loss
of Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program
reimbursements, Utah hospitals have stopped performing the
rare procedures."
Source: "Abortion
curbs might be eased," Rebecca Walsh, Salt Lake
Tribune, May 27, 2004.
Abortions are still being performed in private "clinics"
that claim to not receive state or local taxpayer funds.
Sen. Bramble and UDOH
collaborated
on an administrative "ruling" to gut SB 68 and open the
floodgates to taxpayer-funded abortions. Citizens
demanded a
public hearing and exposed many of the faults of the
"ruling" and the sham process that allows bureaucrats to
destroy a law passed by the people's elected representatives.
Under citizen pressure, the Utah
Department of Health (UDOH), in collaboration with various
officials like Sen. Curt Bramble, General Mark Shurtleff,
and Gov. Olene Walker, has published a
new "ruling".
Back to Topics
2. Taxpayer Assets Again Used in Abortions
Here are two reasons why this
new "ruling" must be utterly rejected:
1) It does not adequately
prevent taxpayer-funded assets from being used to perform
abortions on demand. As
UDOH
admitted in the July 19 public hearing, it does not
consider taxpayer-funded employees, facilities, equipment,
etc., to fall in the definition of direct or indirect public
funding of abortion. According to their
new definition of "public funds":
- (3) "Public funds" means
money of the state, its institutions or its political
subdivisions used to pay or otherwise reimburse a person,
agency, or facility.
(Note:
As we
previously reported, UDOH has written this definition so
that it will be applied to all abortions. Various news
sources have inaccurately reported that this ruling only
applies to certain cases, such as "grave fetal defects.")
Money is definitely part of
"public funds". But what about public (or taxpayer)
funds that were used to:
Under SB 68, those things would
fall under the definition of "public funds". According to
SB 68:
- (2) Public funds of the
state, its institutions, or its political subdivisions may
not be used to pay or otherwise reimburse, either directly
or indirectly, any person, agency, or facility for the
performance of any induced abortion services unless...
[specific exceptions are then listed, such as incest, rape,
and permanent, irreparable, and grave damage to the mother]
If equipment, employees, and
facilities were paid for by taxpayers, they should never be
used to perform abortions on demand — period. Sen. Bramble and
UDOH have chosen to ignore the fact that
SB 68
was written and intended to prevent this outrage.
But Accountability Utah volunteers who helped to draft, edit,
and review the final version of SB 68 have not forgotten.
2) There is no way to verify
compliance with this "ruling". UDOH claims that it
will closely monitor expenses made and taxpayer assets used in
abortions on demand. UDOH even claims to have special formulas
and forms that hospitals must comply with to compensate the
state for all taxpayer assets used. Even if this were the
case, there no way to independently verify compliance by UDOH
and the hospitals.
Note: Assistant Attorney
General Doug Springmeyer recently seemed to imply that the
federal government might audit UDOH and the participating
hospitals. It is implausible on its face that the
federal government would audit to ensure compliance with
a state statute. Source: "Health
officials revise rule relating to doomed pregnancies,"
Rebecca Walsh, Salt Lake Tribune, Sep. 1, 2004.
According to
SB 68,
a government employee will only be fired if it
can be proven that he/she "knowingly" provided abortion funds
illegally. All UDOH would have to do to avoid the
penalty is fail to conduct a real comprehensive audit.
Considering that
Planned Parenthood listed UDOH as one of their top 5 paid
contractors in 2002, and that UDOH officials have
repeatedly proven their callous indifference for the unborn
and for taxpayers,
it is doubtful that UDOH will be dutiful in enforcing even
their own "ruling".
Back to Topics
3. TAKE ACTION! The Buck Stops with Your Legislators
Once again, the lives of real human beings are on the
line. We owe it to ourselves to do all we can to extricate
ourselves from funding these heinous acts.
Doug Springmeyer, UDOH spokesman
and Assistant Attorney General under Mark Shurtleff, did speak truthfully
when he outlined who is ultimately responsible to stop this "ruling": Sen. Howard Stephenson, president of
the Utah Taxpayers Association, Rep. David Ure, who hopes to
become the next House Speaker, the members of the
Administrative Rules Review Committee, and your
legislators.
Therefore, we strongly recommend
the following actions:
1. Implore
the intervention of Divine
Providence.
2. Call (and, if possible,
fax and email) the officials below. Let them know
that you see through the charade and that the entire "ruling"
must be rescinded immediately — as lives hang in the balance.
Please inform us of any
responses you receive at
info@accountabilityutah.org.
3. Forward this message
to your family, friends, and any activists you know. Encourage
them to voice their concerns and get involved.
4. Volunteer to help flier
the districts of collaborating officials by e-mailing us
at
info@accountabilityutah.org.
5. Volunteer to participate
with Accountability Utah's new "Abortion/Infanticide
Task Force".
6. Monitor this site for
new and updated information and join our alert list by
e-mailing us at
info@accountabilityutah.org. Keep in mind that
another public hearing will be held soon.
Back to Topics
Accountability Utah
recipe: Take our information and opinion, research their
information and opinion (if it is available), and then examine
the law and draw your own conclusions. For more information on
similar issues, see the
Infanticide section of our Issues &
Alerts page.
If you have comments or suggestions, please
email us at info@accountabilityutah.org.
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