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High-risk pregnancy specialist shares concerns about Utah’s new abortion trigger law

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High-risk pregnancy specialist shares concerns about Utah’s new abortion trigger law


Estimated learn time: 3-4 minutes

SALT LAKE CITY — A bunch of Utah physicians are coming collectively to push for language adjustments in Utah’s new abortion ban set off legislation.

The legislation was briefly blocked for 2 weeks by a third District decide responding to a request from Deliberate Parenthood. Attorneys on either side will current their arguments Monday.

But, even throughout this pause, a Utah physician mentioned she’s already seen a change in care.

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Dr. Lexi Eller is a maternal-fetal medication specialist for high-risk pregnancies. She got here to Utah 16 years in the past to coach for the place and has been within the state ever since.

“I by no means left as a result of I fell in love with the place and the folks,” Eller mentioned.

Her love and look after sufferers have not modified, however Eller worries that Utah’s new set off legislation will change the extent of care she can provide.

“It’s totally onerous to create black-and-white conditions,” she mentioned. “Medication isn’t a ‘sure,’ ‘no’ — you do not at all times die or do not die — you possibly can’t at all times quantify danger in that approach.”

It is notably complicated for docs coping with high-risk conditions both for the kid or the mom.

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Eller mentioned about 97% of abortions occur earlier than 12 weeks of gestation, however in her line of labor, she offers with the uncommon conditions usually discovered within the different 3%.

“These ladies who’re later of their being pregnant and going through these very tough selections are the ladies that we look after,” Eller mentioned. “When legal guidelines place arbitrary gestational age limits, they notably goal essentially the most susceptible ladies.”

It is essentially the most susceptible that undergo from variations in medical and legislative terminology, one thing Eller mentioned occurred with Utah’s new legislation.

Phrases like “substantial and irreversible danger” depart physicians questioning what degree of care they need to give.

“What’s substantial? It is not possible for us to place numbers on these situations,” Eller mentioned. “So it is not possible for anybody to legislate a quantity both as a result of we do not know learn how to … meet that authorized commonplace.”

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Even the definition of abortion, Eller mentioned, is completely different legally versus medically.

“The reality is that each OBGYN ultimately is an abortion supplier,” Eller mentioned. “If a girl is going through life-threatening danger at some stage of being pregnant, they’re usually ready to finish that being pregnant to protect her well being or life.”

The brand new set off legislation additionally requires victims of rape and sexual assault to have verifiable experiences with legislation enforcement earlier than having an abortion.

“This relationship between a pregnant particular person and her doctor is a sacred area,” Eller mentioned. “Sufferers will usually discuss with us and share with us issues that they might by no means go to legislation enforcement about.”

Blended in with these authorized ambiguities, Eller mentioned the brand new Utah set off legislation additionally places physicians in a decent place between adhering to their “commonplace of care,” which they have been skilled to apply, or the legislation.

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“You are being compelled, in some methods, to place your self at authorized legal responsibility it doesn’t matter what you do,” Eller mentioned.

The implications, in Eller’s perspective, come right down to malpractice for ignoring the usual of care or a felony cost for not following Utah’s set off legislation.

“These legal guidelines are harmful on so many ranges, and so they actually inhibit suppliers from eager to even apply medication in our state,” she mentioned.

Whereas hoping to alter the language throughout the legislation itself, Eller mentioned a bunch of Utah docs can be hoping to focus efforts on decreasing undesirable pregnancies.

“We want actually that lawmakers might perceive that that is a few doctor and a affected person relationship, and leaving well being care to physicians is the correct reply,” Eller mentioned.

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Utah loses a top recruit, as a four-star edge rusher flips to the Cougars

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Utah loses a top recruit, as a four-star edge rusher flips to the Cougars


One of the gems of Utah’s incoming recruiting class is now heading south.

Four-star edge rusher Hunter Clegg flipped his commitment from Utah to BYU after returning home from his Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints mission this week.

The American Fork product was a top-three player in the state coming out of high school. He was originally part of the 2023 recruiting class — with highly touted players like four-stars Jackson Bowers and Walker Lyons.

BYU made a strong push to sign Clegg a few years ago. In the summer of 2022, head coach Kalani Sitake hosted Clegg as part of BYU’s most high-profile recruiting weekend of the cycle. BYU had Clegg, Bowers, Lyons and offensive lineman Ethan Thomason on campus at the same time. With the collection of four-stars in Provo, the coaching staff pitched that group as cornerstone pieces of BYU’s early Big 12 era. Sitake had one-on-one meetings with all of them. The weekend included photoshoots in the mountains, a trip to Deer Lake and Top Golf.

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“It definitely felt like this was an important weekend for the program,” Thomason told The Salt Lake Tribune at the time. “They didn’t go over the top to where it is unrealistic. But you could feel it was really important.”

After that weekend, Thomason and Bowers both committed to BYU. But Clegg and Lyons went elsewhere.

Lyons landed at USC — where he played 10 games for Lincoln Riley last season. Utah also heavily recruited Lyons and the program was surprised he did not come to Salt Lake.

Clegg went on a mission, but oscillated between commitments. He originally pledged to go to Stanford, but backed off after a coaching change. He then announced he’d go to Utah.

Now, he has signed with the Cougars.

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Clegg’s addition is important for two reasons. For one, edge rusher is a position of need for the Cougars.

Defensive coordinator Jay Hill has been looking for a pass rusher who can generate sacks. In the last two years, most of BYU’s pass rush has come from the linebacker position with Harrison Taggart and Isaiah Glasker. Getting to the quarterback with a four-man rush is a critical part of Hill’s scheme, he said.

But perhaps more importantly, Clegg flipping from Utah continues a trend of BYU going after in-state recruits already pledged to the Utes.

In the last cycle, Hill put pressure on the state’s No. 3 player, Faletau Satuala, to flip from Salt Lake to Provo. He was able to sign Satuala at the last second.

Part of Hill’s pitch, Satuala and other recruits indicated, was stability. Kyle Whittingham’s potential retirement played a factor, recruits said, with BYU making in-roads with Utah’s recruits.

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“I think [stability] is important,” 2025 recruit Taani Makasini said. Makasini was recruited by both BYU and Utah, but signed with the Cougars in this class.

“I don’t want to go somewhere and the person that recruited me isn’t there anymore. I’m going there to learn from him. I’m not going there to learn from whoever they’re gonna hire next,” Makasini said.



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Utah Hockey Club Owner Ryan Smith Builds Buzz With Free Ticket Giveaway

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Utah Hockey Club Owner Ryan Smith Builds Buzz With Free Ticket Giveaway


When you’re the Utah Hockey Club, giving away 2,000 tickets to a regular-season game is a cause for celebration, not alarm.

After all, not every pro sports team team has an unused inventory of ‘single goal view seats’ that it can tap as a tool to help entice new fans.

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It started with a simple tweet from Utah Hockey Club owner Ryan Smith ahead of the club’s home game against the Vancouver Canucks last Wednesday.

In a followup, Smith said that he’d planned to give away the eight seats in his owner’s suite. But when he got more than 700 responses, he decided to open the invitation wider.

In the end, he put 2,000 extra people into Delta Center on top of the usual sold-out crowd of 11,131. And the fans got a good show as Utah staged a third-period rally from a 2-0 deficit before Mikhail Sergachev buried the game-winner on a 2-on-1 with 12 seconds left in overtime.

Acquired in a trade with the Tampa Bay Lightning during the 2024 NHL draft weekend, Sergachev has been a massive difference-maker for the Utah team in its first season in its new home. Helping to fill holes after fellow veteran blueliners John Marino and Sean Durzi went down early with long-term injuries, 26-year-old Sergachev is averaging 25:45 a game, third-most in the entire NHL.

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With eight goals and 26 points in 33 games to date, the two-time Stanley Cup winner is also on pace to match his previous career high of 64 points in a season, set in 2022-23.

Another standout has been goaltender Karel Vejmelka. The 28-year-old now sits second in the NHL with 16.5 goals saved above expected according to MoneyPuck, and has amassed a career-best save percentage of .918.

After their vagabond years in Arizona, including their last two seasons as secondary tenants at 4,600-seat Mullett Arena on the campus of Arizona State University, perhaps it should come as no surprise that the re-established Utah team would come out of the gate as road warriors. Unbeaten in regulation in their last eight games, with a record of 6-0-2, they’re up to 11-6-2 on the road this season.

Utah’s home win over Vancouver last Wednesday boosted the squad to 5-5-3 on home ice. The club followed up on Sunday with a 5-4 shootout loss to the Anaheim Ducks, which has the team just outside of the Western Conference wild-card picture with one more game to go before the NHL’s three-day holiday break — hosting the Dallas Stars as part of a 13-game slate on Monday.

On Dec. 2, the Stars earned a 2-1 win at the Delta Center — Utah’s only regulation loss since Nov. 24. The Western Conference standings are tight, but the new club is trending positively toward making the playoffs in its inaugural season. The Coyotes’ only post-season appearance in the franchise’s last 12 years came as part of the expanded 24-team field in the 2020 pandemic bubble, when they eliminated the Nashville Predators in the best-of-three qualifying round before falling to the Colorado Avalanche.

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Of the ice, Smith and his wife and co-owner, Ashley, have already helped make winners out of their 31 fellow NHL owners. Smith Entertainment Group’s $1.2 billion purchase of Arizona’s hockey assets last April fueled a 140 percent increase in the valuation of the franchise — a key metric in the league’s 44 percent increase in average valuations in 2024 per Forbes estimates, which dramatically outpaces the growth of the other North American sports over the last year.

The rosy economic picture for the Utah Hockey Club and the league as a whole bodes well for the next round of collective bargaining. While the current deal is not set to expire until the end of the 2025-26 season, commissioner Gary Bettman indicated at the league’s board of governors’ meetings in Florida earlier this month that he and NHL Players’ Association executive director Marty Walsh plan to start formal discussions in February, with an eye toward potentially completing an agreement before the end of this hockey year.



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Washington EDGE Lance Holtzclaw transfers to Utah

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Washington EDGE Lance Holtzclaw transfers to Utah


Lance Holtzclaw has found a new home. The former Washington edge rusher entered the transfer portal after three years on Montlake and has signed with one of the Huskies’ former Pac-12 opponents, the Utah Utes.

Now in the Big 12, coach Kyle Whittingham’s team should be a good fit for the 6-foot-3, 225-pound pass rush specialist, which finished third in the conference in total defense, allowing 329.7 yards per game in its first year in the conference.

The Utes also finished fifth in the conference with 24 sacks, a statistic that Holtzclaw may be able to assist with if he can see the field more often.

In three years with the Huskies, the former three-star recruit who is originally from Dorchester, Massachusetts, played in 26 games and tallied 13 tackles, 2 sacks, and a fumble recovery.

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Holtzclaw’s most notable moment in a Husky uniform came in Washington’s 26-21 win over the USC Trojans in November. He came in on fourth down and pressured quarterback Miller Moss, forcing an errant throw in the game’s final seconds. He also completes an effective defensive line trade between the two schools, after the Huskies added a commitment from former Utah defensive tackle Simote Pepa last week.



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