Summer-Fall 2025 Legislative Report

Written By Peggy Carrico

INTERIM WORK OF THE LEGISLATIVE ACTION CORPS

This summer update focuses on discussions and actions during Interim Committee meetings and Special Sessions relevant to the priorities of the Utah League of Women Voters. These priorities, found in the LWVUT Program, emphasize voting rights, improving elections, citizen participation, and transparency in government. In line with the national League of Women Voters, our Utah League also includes the following among its priorities: diversity, equity and inclusion, education, social and economic justice, natural resources, and reproductive rights. This report is a living document. As LAC Observers monitor Interim Committee meetings, discussions relevant to LWVUT’s priorities will be linked below each category.

VOTING

Gerrymandering/Redistricting 

Monday, August 25, 2025, Judge Dianna Gibson ruled that the Utah Legislature had violated voters’ constitutional rights to make laws when they repealed Proposition 4, a voter-approved initiative supported by Better Boundaries that passed in 2018. That initiative sought to ban partisan gerrymandering in Utah and had established an independent redistricting commission and process. The legislature subsequently ignored the requirements of Proposition 4 and, instead, provided its own maps which provided four safe GOP districts by splitting Salt Lake County into four different congressional districts.

The League of Women Voters Utah, along with Mormon Women for Ethical Government and a few voters with standing from Salt Lake County, sued the legislature. On October 24, 2022, in the Third Judicial District Court for Salt Lake County, the court dismissed the LWVUT and MWEG’s claim that the legislature illegally repealed and replaced the 2018 voter-approved Proposition 4, which had created an independent redistricting commission. The court concluded that the legislature has the power to amend or repeal any statute, including those passed by a citizen initiative. However, the court denied the state's motion to dismiss the partisan gerrymandering claims. This surviving claim allowed the lawsuit to move forward on the allegation that the 2021 congressional map unconstitutionally diluted the voting power of the non-Republican vote.

Both sides appealed the district court’s ruling to the Utah Supreme Court which, in July 2024, reversed the district court’s decision regarding the ballot initiative. The Utah Supreme Court ruled that, per the Utah Constitution, the legislature’s power to amend or repeal a voter-initiated law is limited when that initiative is a fundamental reform of government: “When Utahns exercise their right to reform the government through a citizen initiative, their exercise of these rights is protected from government infringement.” The Supreme Court then remanded the case to district court for a reconsideration of the ballot initiative claims in light of their ruling. 

The recent ruling from Judge Gibson follows the Utah Supreme Court’s direction in finding that the legislature violated citizens’ right to reform their government. In her decision, Gibson wrote that, in ignoring the voter-passed initiative, the legislature had “intentionally stripped away all of the core redistricting standards and procedures that were binding on it.” The judge also prohibited the current congressional maps from being used in any future election. 

As of August 30, 2025, Judge Gibson has given the legislature until September 24, 2025 to draw new congressional boundaries. The process is constrained by the deadline of November 1, 2025 for counties to prepare for elections and a January 1, 2026 deadline for candidates to file to run for office. The court will hold a hearing sometime in late October to hear arguments about the new maps and whether they meet the criteria required by Proposition 4. Attorneys representing the legislature are currently attempting to pause the new court order to appeal the ruling.

Voter Registration

The LWVUT is monitoring the state’s new voter registration form and requirements in HB300 which was passed during the 2025 Legislative Session. The league is concerned that these may present barriers to registration for specific groups of citizens and is considering how best to support voters in using the new form to opt-in to mail-in ballots. The final version of HB300, as summarized in Utah News Dispatch, March 6, 2025, will require the following: 

  • Starting in 2026, require voters with a valid state ID to include the last four digits of their state ID when returning a ballot through the mail or in a drop box. For registered voters who cast their ballot without an ID number, clerks would confirm their ballots by matching their signatures. 

  • Phase out Utah’s current automatic vote-by-mail system by 2029. In order to vote by mail, Utahns would be required to obtain a valid state ID by Jan. 1, 2029 and opt in to voting by mail. By that deadline, clerks would also be required to rely on confirming state ID numbers on ballots rather than signature verification. 

  • Allows Utahns who are eligible to register to vote that also sign an affidavit stating that they’re indigent to receive a state voter ID card free of charge.

  • Beginning in 2029, voters who vote in person must present a valid ID, except in certain circumstances, in which a voter could sign an affidavit and present two forms of alternative ID (like a social security card, bank statement or paystub). 

  • By 2029, requires voters to opt in to receive by-mail ballots every eight years.

  • Creates new ways for voters to opt in to voting by mail, including when renewing their driver’s license, voting in person, or through an online portal. 

  • Move up Utah’s current deadline for by-mail ballots. Currently, Utah allows by-mail ballots to be postmarked by the day before Election Day in order for clerks to count them, but HB300 would require ballots to be in clerks’ possession no later than 8 p.m. on election night, regardless of their postmark.

Elimination of Mail-In Voting

During the 2025 Legislative Session, and influenced by national discussions of voter fraud, Utah legislators considered HB332, a bill which would have significantly restricted Utah’s universal vote-by-mail system. The bill would have required voters to drop off ballots in-person at a polling place or a drop box monitored by at least two poll workers, and show a valid, government form of identification to submit their ballot. The bill would also have required proof of citizenship to vote and would remove Utah from ERIC, the Electronic Registration Information Center. ERIC is a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization that helps election officials maintain accurate voter rolls and detect possible illegal voting. 

Proponents have argued that eliminating mail-in voting, requiring voters to present proof of citizenship, and other measures would improve election security, prevent fraud, and ensure public confidence in the results of elections. Opponents argue that these requirements would suppress voter turnout and present barriers to voting for vulnerable populations. Legislators could not agree on specific provisions of HB332 which ultimately did not pass in 2025. However, a similar bill is likely to reappear during the 2026 Legislative Session. 

2025 Interim Meetings with Discussion Related to League Priorities

Rules Review and General Oversight Committee - July 22, 2025

Government Operations Interim Committee - August 20, 2025

GOVERNMENT TRANSPARENCY

The League of Women Voters believes that democratic government depends upon informed and active participation in government and requires that governmental bodies protect the citizen’s right to know by giving adequate notice of proposed actions, holding open meetings, and making public records accessible. In recent years, the Utah Legislature has supported bills and actions that have blocked government transparency. Utah’s Open and Public Meetings Act has increased the number of reasons for which public bodies can close meetings over the last ten years, and Utah’s GRAMA has been adjusted to allow for more records to be categorized as protected or confidential. Recent bills that limited transparency in government include:

  • HB 202, Student Athlete Amendments, which made students’ NIL contracts exempt from Utah’s Open Records Act; 

  • SB 211, Generational Water Infrastructure Amendments, which exempted the Water Development Council from Utah’s Open and Public Meetings Act; and SB 240, Government Records Access and Management Act Amendments, which exempted the calendars of public and elected officials from Utah’s open records laws.

  • S.B.277, Government Records Management Amendments dissolved the Utah State Records Committee (SRC), an independent, seven-member panel that served as a model for other states, hearing appeals from the public and media regarding denied government records access under Utah’s GRAMA. Established in 1992, the SRC was replaced by a single administrative judge, who can only be dismissed for cause. This change in process was enacted despite considerable public opposition for reducing community involvement in the appeals process and creating significant potential for conflict of interest.

UTAH’S CITIZEN INITIATIVE PROCESS

For the past few legislative sessions, the Utah Legislature has been engaged in a backlash against Utah’s initiative process. This backlash comes in response to successful voter initiatives on issues including medical cannabis, Medicaid expansion, and redistricting. The Legislature has suggested that ballot initiatives, which are a direct democracy measure, threaten the state’s republican form of government, even though both legislative means are recognized in the Utah State Constitution. Threats to Utah’s citizen initiative process have included new legislative restrictions, higher costs, and legal challenges to initiatives passed by Utah voters.

  • H.B. 284 Initiative Amendments, proposed by lawmakers during the 2024 Utah Legislative Session, was a bill contingent on the passage of a constitutional amendment, H.J.R. 14 Proposal to Amend Utah Constitution - Statewide Initiatives, that would have modified the vote percentage required to pass a statewide initiative that would impose a new tax or increase a tax rate from a simple majority to a 60% requirement. Although this bill did not pass, committee discussions revealed that many legislators supported making passing an initiative in Utah more difficult by increasing the percentage threshold of required votes. 

  • S.B.73, Statewide Initiative Amendments passed during the 2025 Utah Legislative Session, increases the cost and difficulty of qualifying a ballot initiative. The law requires initiatives to include a fiscal analysis detailing funding and potential tax increases and allows the lieutenant governor to reject a proposal if the funding plan is deemed inadequate or inaccurate. Potentially adding millions of dollars to the initiative proposal process, the law also requires initiative supporters to publish the full text of their proposal in a physical newspaper in every county for two months before an election.

  • Constitutional Amendment D, (2024 Proposed Constitutional Amendments, Utah Legislature) proposed in a 2024 special legislative session, would have placed a constitutional amendment on the ballot that gave lawmakers the power to repeal or alter voter-approved initiatives. However, prior to the 2024 election, the Utah Supreme Court voided the measure ruling that the ballot language was misleading.

  • S.J.R.2, Proposal to Amendment the Utah Constitution - Statewide Initiatives, passed during the 2025 Utah Legislative Session, will place a question on the 2026 ballot for Utah voters that would put new restrictions on initiatives. The proposed constitutional amendment would require a 605 supermajority to pass any ballot initiative that would increase taxes.

  • Initiative on Initiatives is a series of citizen ballot initiatives that seek to reform Utah’s citizen initiative process, tax laws, planning and zoning laws, and public records. Led by a group of citizens known as the Citizens Initiative Reform Committee, the effort is a response to citizens’ frustration over the increasing difficulty of passing citizen initiatives in Utah.

In 2025, the Lt. Governor’s Office rejected most of the committee’s proposed initiatives, declaring them “nonsensical,” a legal reasoning that can ostensibly be used to reject initiatives when they can be problematic if passed by voters. However, the initiative to reform the initiative process itself was initially allowed to proceed. The Citizens Initiative Reform Committee has focused its efforts on adjusting rules governing how citizens can propose and pass initiatives; revisions to accessing public records (GRAMA); changes to state tax laws; and adjustments to laws concerning public land use.

In May 2025, the Citizens Initiative Reform Committee announced their intent to seek direct intervention from the Utah Supreme Court to reinstate the rejected provisions of its original initiative. In July 2025, the Utah Supreme Court formally agreed to hear the case.

EDUCATION

Federal Education Funds

On August 18, 2025, the Federal Commission considered the costs and benefits to Utah of rejecting federal education funding. Besides the direct and indirect costs of managing federal funds, the funds require that states and the schools receiving funds adhere to specific educational accountability standards. Although in 2024, Utah legislators eliminated Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs from Utah’s public schools, federal DEI requirements create the potential for future funding conflicts between Utah and the federal government. Utah currently relies on federal funding for programs, such as Title I funding and special education, that support vulnerable students. The conflict underscores the broad national debate over the appropriate balance of power between federal and state governments in education policy.  

State Education Funds

Utah legislators have not only diverted funds earmarked for public education toward funding the Utah Fits All Scholarship, a voucher program that funds homeschool and private school, but they have also made attempts to remove the earmark for education on Utah’s state income tax established in the Utah Constitution, arguing that they need more flexible and efficient allocation of funds within the state’s budget.  

Utah Fits All Scholarship

The Utah Fits All school voucher program was ruled unconstitutional in April 2025 and is currently under appeal to the Utah Supreme Court. In her ruling, Judge Laura Scott determined that the voucher program violates Utah’s constitution because the Utah Legislature does not have the plenary power to redefine public education by diverting state income tax revenue to private and home schools. The Utah Constitution mandates that all revenue from taxes on income and intangible property be used to support K-12 public schools and higher education, and to support children and individuals with disabilities. The Utah Fits All program will continue to operate until the court rules on the matter. The league is monitoring the decision of the courts and the recent audit of Utah Fits All Scholarship spending from year one and its implications.

Higher Education Funding

In the 2025 Legislative Session, lawmakers passed H.B. 265, Higher Education Strategic Reinvestment which requires Utah’s eight public institutions of higher education to cut 10% of their academic budgets over three years and place these funds into a strategic reinvestment fund for programs in high-demand fields like technology and life sciences. Universities can recoup the set-aside funds by developing three-year plans to reinvest the funds in high-demand, high-wage programs that meet state workforce needs such as engineering, biotechnology, AI, nursing, and health sciences, and by cutting programs that legislators consider underperforming, unnecessary, or inefficient. The law has cut millions of dollars across the state’s system of higher education and has led to the elimination of dozens of academic programs and courses, particularly at the University of Utah and Utah State University. For example, the University of Utah has cut 81 academic programs to generate its required portion of the funding; Utah State University is discontinuing 14 academic programs, including some in the College of Education.

Diversity Equity and Inclusion in Education

In 2023, the Utah Legislature passed H.B. 427, Individual Freedom in Public Education Act, which restricted curriculum and instructional materials in Utah’s public schools and impacted how topics such as racism, sexism, and other topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion could be discussed. The law also prohibited schools from requiring teachers and staff to receive training that included “inherent bias,” or in other words, topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

In 2024, the Utah Legislature passed H.B. 261, Equal Opportunity Initiatives, a law that banned from all public schools and public institutions programs, training, and initiatives related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and prohibited differential treatment based on characteristics like race or sex. The law was later amended to specifically exempt support and scholarships for Native students, as tribes are considered sovereign nations. In line with the H.B. 261, the Utah State Board of Education amended R277-328, Equal Opportunity in Education, to explicitly prohibit training and practices related to diversity, equity, and inclusion in Utah’s K-12 public schools. 

In April 2025, the Utah State Board of Education considered a resolution, Resolution Directing the Removal of DEI in Utah Public Schools, Utah State Board of Education, April 2025, which, among other claims, suggested that programs related to diversity, equity, and inclusion had “Soviet policy goals” and were tied to Marxism. While the resolution ultimately failed to pass because, as board members recognized, the resolution was unnecessary with the passage of H.B. 261 and the approval of R277-328, the proposed resolution demonstrates some board members’ concern about public schools’ compliance with the ban on diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

2025 Interim Meetings with Discussion Related to League Priorities

Education Interim Committee - May 21, 2025

STATE SOVEREIGNTY

In recent years, the Utah Legislature has challenged the federal government on issues including public lands, state sovereignty, and immigration. Legislation passed since 2024 has aimed to increase the state’s control over its own territory and affairs.

  • The Utah State Sovereignty Act, passed into law on January 31, 2024 by concurrent resolution, allows the Utah Legislature “to prohibit a government officer from enforcing or assisting in the enforcement of a federal directive within the state if the Legislature determines the federal directive violates the principles of state sovereignty.” The law sets up a process for the state to overrule or otherwise ignore federal rules and decisions, but may not be constitutional. 

  • Utah Lawsuit Challenging Federal Control Over BLM. In August 2024, Utah filed a lawsuit directly with the U.S. Supreme Court, challenging the federal government’s authority to indefinite retention of 18.5M acres of BLM-managed public lands in Utah. The state argued that the federal government’s ownership and management is unconstitutional and sought a disposal of these lands. The lawsuit claimed that federal ownership of Utah’s public lands without a designated purpose violates state sovereignty and the principles of federalism. The Supreme Court dismissed Utah’s case on January 13, 2025, when the court denied Utah’s motion to file a bill of complaint, effectively refusing to hear the case. Utah had spent over $3M on this lawsuit when the court refused to hear the case. Utah Legislators plan to refile the case in a lower federal court.

  • National Monument Litigation. The State of Utah and two counties, along with recreationalists and a mining company, filed a lawsuit in 2022 seeking to overturn President Biden’s 2021 proclamation that reaffirmed the original boundaries of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments. A district court dismissed the state’s case in August 2023, and the state appealed the dismissal to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in October 2023. Although the Tenth Circuit’s decision is expected in coming months, the case will likely be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

NATURAL RESOURCES

The League of Women Voters promotes a sustainable lifestyle to preserve a Utah environment beneficial to life, emphasizing air quality, energy issues, transportation, public land, water, seismic issues, and climate change. In particular, the League has utilized the 2023 Current Water Issues in Utah Report to educate membership and the public on manageable actions to secure a balance of Utah’s water supply and demand, and has developed briefing material on clean energy in Utah. While matters concerning natural resources have wide overlap among a number of legislative committees, LAC Observers watch for bills that impact air quality, energy, transportation, public land, water, seismic issues, and climate change. 

Great Salt Lake

The 2025 Legislative Session did not see aggressive action toward saving Great Salt Lake in either bills or funding.

Nuclear Power and Energy

Utah State Legislators view nuclear power as a key part of the state’s energy strategy as the state seeks to meet Utah’s rapidly growing power demand.

  • H.B. 249, Nuclear Power Amendments, passed in the 2025 Legislative Session, established the Nuclear Energy Consortium, the Utah Energy Council, and the Electrical Energy Development Investment Fund to promote nuclear energy development. The law also created incentives to advance nuclear and other energy technologies, and established frameworks for workforce development, policy research, and regulation. 

  • H.B. 212, Advanced Transmission Technologies, passed in 2025, prioritizes the approval of new infrastructure technology.

  • H.C.R. 9, House Concurrent Resolution to Create Energy Compact with Idaho and Wyoming, passed in the 2025 Legislative Session, promotes collaboration between Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado to strengthen regional infrastructure and address shared energy challenges.

  • S.B. 1132, Electric Utility Amendments, passed in the 2025 Legislative Session, allows large load energy consumers to enter into flexible contracts with existing utilities or alternative energy providers. Such contracts would allow providers to meet growing demands outside of normal regulatory processes but require large load consumers to bear the full cost so that existing ratepayers are not negatively impacted.

Mining

The Utah Legislature passed several significant mining bills in the 2025 Legislative session including amendments that limit transparency and public oversight of permits and new regulations on brine mining in Great Salt Lake. Of particular concern to the League are recently passed bills that hinder environmental safeguards, expedite and streamline mining development at the expense of individuals and public interests, and reduce regulatory and public oversight of the mining expansion.

  • H.B. 453, Great Salt Lake Revisions, passed in 2025, regulates mineral extraction from the low water levels of Great Salt Lake. The law accommodates new extractive methods by creating a new regulatory framework friendly to lithium production; restricts mining companies unlimited water use for evaporation; and establishes a water plan for Great Salt Lake to guide mineral extraction during low water years.

  • H.B. 433, Brine Amendments, passed in 2025, provides for a study on how to manage multiple mineral developments from brines and the conflicts arising among operators extracting different minerals from the same source.

  • H.B. 502, Critical Infrastructure and Mining, passed in 2025, commissions a study on the supply, demand, and impact of critical infrastructure materials mining across the state.

  • H.B. 355, Mining and Critical Infrastructure Materials Amendments, passed in 2025, sets new rules for how existing mining operations for these materials can expand, including onto adjacent land.

  • H.B. 353, Mining Operations Amendments, passed in 2025, adjusts the approval process for large mining permits and limits public engagement and judicial review in favor of industry. 

  • H.B. 407, Eminent Domain Modifications, passed in 2025, restricts the eminent domain rights of private individuals in areas designated for public mining. 

Inland Port Authority

During the 2025 Legislative Session, the legislature gave additional flexibility and governance to the Utah Inland Port Authority. These include allowing the designation of new project areas, reducing public transparency for businesses operating in the port by strengthening GRAMA securities for these businesses, expanding tax differentials for projects adjacent to existing project areas, and allowing private landowners to build distribution centers on contaminated land. The new laws also create a $75M infrastructure bank to fund low-interest loans for Utah Inland Port Authority projects, including rural satellite locations (S.B. 236 and S.B. 243).

2025 Interim Meetings with Discussion Related to League Priorities

Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environment Interim Committee - June 18, 2025

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE

The League includes among its priorities the promotion of social and economic justice, securing equal rights for all, and combating discrimination and poverty. Therefore, the League monitors and promotes justice reinvestment, including sentencing reform, drug courts to reduce incarceration rates, programs to prepare inmates to successfully return to society, and expanding mental health treatment and parole reform. In recent sessions, the Utah Legislature has passed a variety of bills affecting social justice which have both positively and negatively affected social justice. While some measures have expanded rights and protections, others have restricted the rights and access of marginalized groups.

Criminal Justice and Victims’ Rights

  • H.B. 308, Crime Victim Amendments, passed in the 2024 Legislative Session, made several changes to support victims of crime. The law requires the Utah Office for Victims of Crime to provide educational materials to law enforcement and establishes a process for victims to file complaints regarding violations of their rights.

  • S.B. 213, Criminal Justice Modifications, passed in the 2024 Legislative Session, was an omnibus bill that reformed the state's criminal justice system by establishing new standards for drug courts and creating sentencing criteria for high-frequency offenders. 

  • H.B. 224, Inmate Reentry, Finances, and Debt Modifications, passed in the 2025 Legislative Session, requires that county jails and state agencies suspend interest on an incarcerated person's debts, such as child support, and provides for expanded reentry services.

  • S.B.194, Defendant Access to Evidence, passed in the 2025 Legislative Session, ensures that incarcerated individuals are provided with a private and confidential space to review case evidence with their attorneys.

  • H.B. 167, Offender Reintegration Amendments, passed in the 2025 Legislative Session, focuses on amending policies concerning the reintegration of former offenders into society.

LGBTQ+ and Civil Right

  • H.B. 261, Equal Opportunity Initiatives, passed in the 2024 Legislative Session, banned diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and offices in public education, higher education, and government agencies. Opponents consider this law a setback for anti-discrimination and inclusion efforts.

  • H.B. 257, Sex-based Designations for Privacy, Anti-bullying, and Women's Opportunities, passed in the 2024 Legislative Session, restricts access to sex-designated restrooms and changing rooms in public schools and other public facilities to an individual’s sex designation at birth.

  • H.B. 77, Flag Display Amendments, passed in the 2025 Legislative Session,  prohibits the display of "unofficial" flags, such as the LGBTQ+ pride flag and Juneteenth flag, on government property, including public schools. Opponents argue that this bill targets and marginalizes LGBTQ+ students.

Homeless and Poverty

  • H.B. 100, Food Security Amendments, passed in the 2025 Legislative Session, eliminated reduced-price school lunches, providing no-cost meals to students who previously paid a reduced price, and expanded participation in the Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer (S-EBT) Program. The law prohibits stigmatizing students with meal debt and directs communications about debt to parents, not children. establishes a program to provide free breakfast and lunch to eligible students and ensures participation in the Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer Program.

Child Care

The LWVUT supports programs, services, policies and funding at all levels of government to expand the supply of affordable quality child care for all who need it, in order to increase access to employment and to prevent and reduce poverty. During the 2023 Legislative Session, the Utah Legislature gave a directive for a study to identify solutions for childcare access which culminated in the Utah Childcare Solutions and Workplace Productivity Plan (produced by the Early Learning Policy Group and released in November 2024). This plan provided five categories of recommendations for improving childcare in Utah which have not yet been implemented by the Utah Legislature. 

Many child advocates, including Voices for Utah Children, consider legislative efforts to have fallen short, particularly in areas of funding and oversight, despite the widely recognized childcare need in the state. The Legislature has passed a few measures to improve childcare access in Utah, though many more proposed actions have failed in recent sessions.

  • H.B. 410, Child Care Amendments, passed in the 2025 Legislative Session, made several changes to expand and standardize childcare facilities. It allows childcare centers with 16 to 99 children to use warming kitchens instead of full ones. It also allows local governments to allocate up to 1% of housing and transit reinvestment zone funds to expand childcare facilities and counts preschool teaching experience in childcare programs for educator licensing purposes.

  • TANF Reserve Funds for Childcare: Lawmakers authorized the Department of Workforce Services to use reserve funds from the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program for childcare services. 

  • Failed Bills and Repeals. The 2025 Legislative Session saw several bills fail that were intended to address childcare needs, these included S.B. 189, Child Care Services Amendments and S.B. 221, Child Care Revisions. During the 2025 session, the Utah Legislature also repealed the Women in the Economy Subcommittee through H.B. 542, Economic Development Amendments. This subcommittee had been a leading public body advocating for childcare reform in Utah.

Reproductive Rights

The League of Women Voters promotes reproductive rights and justice by supporting access to women’s health care and an individual’s right to privacy in determining their own reproductive decisions, including abortion. The League continues to serve as an ally of reproductive rights organizations.

  • S.B. 174, Abortion Prohibition Amendments is a Utah law passed in 2020 which aimed to ban nearly all abortions in Utah with only a few exceptions such as cases or rape, incest, or medical necessity. The law was scheduled to go into immediate effect if Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) were to be overturned.

  • Overturning of Roe v. Wade. On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey in their ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion in the U.S.

  • Status of S.B. 174, Abortion Prohibition Amendments. After a legal challenge by Planned Parenthood, an injunction has blocked the law since July 2022, following the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs decision. The Utah Supreme Court affirmed this injunction in August 2024, sending the case back to a lower court to assess the law's constitutionality.

  • Impact on Utah Women: While the legal challenge proceeds, abortion remains legal in Utah up to 18 weeks of pregnancy. 

  • H.B. 467, Abortion Changes, passed in the 2023 Legislative Session, banned abortion clinics from operating in the state by requiring abortions to be performed only in hospitals, effectively eliminating clinics. The law faced immediate legal challenges, and a court issued a preliminary injunction, blocking the law’s implementation. Although the law is currently being challenged in court, if fully implemented, the law would not only require abortions to occur in hospitals only, but would also provide new restrictions for rape or incest exceptions and limit the life-of-the-mother exception to serious physical conditions.

  • H.B. 560, Licensing Modifications, passed in the 2024 Legislative Session, is a law that modified licensing requirements for abortion clinics, allowing them to be licensed and perform abortions, thereby repealing parts of H.B. 467, Abortion Changes. The law was primarily a procedural move intended to simplify the legal arguments surrounding Utah’s restrictive trigger ban which remains blocked by a court injunction. The objective of the bill was to let the Utah Supreme Court focus on the constitutionality of the underlying trigger law rather than the clinic ban itself.

  • Current Status. Due to court injunctions, several of Utah’s most restrictive abortion laws, including the trigger ban and clinic ban, are not in effect. The de facto law in Utah remains the 18-week abortion ban passed in 2019. Other abortion restrictions in effect include: a mandatory 72-hour waiting period for patients; mandatory counseling requirements; parental consent and notification laws for minors; restricted coverage for abortion under public and private insurance.

2025 Interim Meetings with Discussion Related to League Priorities

Economic Development and Workforce Services Interim Committee - June 18, 2025

Health and Human Services Interim Committee - August 20, 2025

JUDICIARY

In June 2025, the League of Women Voters recently adopted a national position on the Federal Judiciary emphasizing principles of transparency, accountability, independence, and ethics for federal judges and justices. Key aspects of the position include requiring judges to disclose financial benefits, follow rigorous financial disclosure rules, recuse themselves in cases of potential bias with public rationale, and uphold the stability of law (stare decisis). The League also supports measures that strengthen public perception of the judiciary’s legitimacy which is seen as vital for a strong democracy. 

As a result of this national position, the Utah League of Women Voters is carefully monitoring discussions and bills related to the judiciary, judges, judicial selection and retention, and the courts’ role and structure. Links to interim committee meetings with relevant discussions about the judiciary are linked below:

2025 Interim Meetings with Discussion Related to League Monitoring

Judiciary Interim Committee - August 20, 2025  

EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT

The League of Women Voters strongly supports the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and has advocated for its official inclusion in the U.S. Constitution since 1972. The League believes that the ERA is necessary to guarantee constitutional protection of equal rights under the law for all people, regardless of sex, and to provide a crucial tool for ensuring equality and preventing discrimination. The League continues to push for the ERA’s formal recognition by urging action from Congress and the President to certify and publish the amendment. 

Utah is one of the states that never ratified the ERA by the 1982 deadline. In 2017, a legislative resolution to ratify the ERA was filed but not passed. During the 2024 Legislative Session, a House Joint Resolution, H.J.R.16 was introduced to ratify the ERA, but this resolution did not advance to become law. 

*This report includes original research, content from reports from LAC Observers, and support from AI search engines.

Peggy Carrico
Next

August, September, October Interim Meetings 2024