Utah
How the SCOTUS ruling on Idaho’s emergency abortion ban will affect patient transfers to Utah
SALT LAKE CITY — The United States Supreme Court sidestepped a decision Thursday on whether federal law requires states to provide pregnancy terminations in medical emergencies even in cases where the procedure would otherwise be illegal.
Instead, the court’s opinion – which stems from Idaho’s near-total abortion ban – kicked the legal questions surfaced in the case back to the lower courts and reinstated a previous ruling that will allow doctors in the state to perform emergency abortions in the meantime.
That means women in Idaho are unlikely – at least for now – to be airlifted to nearby states like Utah for the procedure.
“After today, there will be a few months — maybe a few years — during which doctors may no longer need to airlift pregnant patients out of Idaho,” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote of the decision’s impact, in an opinion that dissented in part and concurred in part with the broader court’s ruling.
But the dismissal of the case leaves open key legal questions and sets up the potential that the issue of emergency room abortion care will come to the court again in the future.
In her brief, Jackson was critical of the court’s indecision, arguing that the ruling represented “not a victory” for Idaho patients but a “delay” – and that doctors still face the difficult decision of “whether to provide emergency medical care in the midst of highly charged legal circumstances.”
Conservatives Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett joined Jackson and her liberal colleagues, Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, in the 6-3 opinion, which was erroneously posted online Wednesday. Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas dissented.
In his opinion, Alito also argued that the legal questions in the case – which come as abortion has become a political flashpoint in the U.S. presidential election – should have been decided, saying it was as “ripe for decision as it will ever be.”
“Apparently, the Court has simply lost the will to decide the easy but emotional and highly politicized question that the case presents,” he wrote.
Alito indicated that he would have ruled against the Biden administration’s interpretation that the federal Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA), which requires hospital emergency rooms that receive Medicare funding to provide treatment to people experiencing medical emergencies, supersedes Idaho’s abortion ban.
Idaho law allows doctors to terminate a pregnancy for any woman with emergency health complications who is clearly on the brink of death. But it’s quiet on the question of what to do when pregnancy complications put someone’s health at risk but don’t imminently risk her life.
Under threat of jail time and loss of their medical licenses, Idaho doctors said prior to Thursday’s ruling that they sometimes had no choice under such circumstances but to send a woman across state lines by helicopter or advise her to otherwise get to another state for treatment.
“Those transfers measure the difference between the life-threatening conditions Idaho will allow hospitals to treat and the health-threatening conditions it will not,” Kagan wrote in a concurring opinion Thursday.
Some women were transferred to reliably blue states like Washington and Oregon. But Utah’s capital was “one of the places we’ll tend to call first,” Stacy Seyb, a physician specializing in maternal-fetal medicine at St. Luke’s Hospital in Boise, told FOX 13 earlier this year.
While abortion remains legal up to 18 weeks in Utah, a near-total ban is currently on hold pending a ruling from the Utah Supreme Court.
Rep. Karianne Lisonbee, R-Clearfield, sponsored the abortion ban in the House and noted in a statement that “today’s Supreme Court ruling has no direct implications on Utah’s strong pro-life laws, including our trigger law.” “Utah will continue to stand up for policies that protect the unborn,” she added.
Thursday’s ruling does mean doctors in Idaho likely won’t have to airlift patients to Utah and other states, which Planned Parenthood Association of Utah Chief Corporate Affairs Office Shireen Ghorbani called a “small victory.”
“But what should have happened honestly is the Supreme Court should have said you have a right to emergency medical treatment, you’ve had that right for 40 years and you should have the right to an abortion if that is the appropriate medical care for the complication for the experience that you’re having,” she argued.
Regardless of the court’s decision, Ghorbani said she expects some Idaho women will still have to come to Utah for abortion care.
“Twenty two percent of their OBGYNs have left the state, they are running very low on specialists in maternal-fetal medicine,” Ghorbani noted. “That reality has now been created for people who live in Idaho. So there may still be people from Idaho who are seeking emergency medical care in Utah and this is what happens when we ring this bell.”
Recently released data from the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights, showed that 7% of all abortions performed in the state last year were for non-residents coming to Utah from Idaho. The data showed some Utah women also traveled out of state in 2023, to both Nevada and Colorado.
Utah
Utah man dies of injuries sustained in avalanche in Big Cottonwood Canyon
SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — A man died after he was caught in an avalanche in Big Cottonwood Canyon over the weekend.
A spokesperson for the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office confirmed on Thursday that Kevin Williams, 57, had died.
He, along with one other person, was hospitalized in critical condition after Saturday’s avalanche in the backcountry.
MORE | Big Cottonwood Canyon Avalanche
In an interview with 2News earlier this week, one of Williams’ close friends, Nate Burbidge, described him as a loving family man.
“Kevin’s an amazing guy. He’s always serving, looking for ways that he can connect with others,” Burbidge said.
A GoFundMe was set up to help support Williams’ family.
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Utah
911 recordings detail hours leading up to discovery of Utah girl, mother dead in Las Vegas
CONTENT WARNING: This report discusses suicide and includes descriptions of audio from 911 calls that some viewers may find disturbing.
LAS VEGAS — Exclusively obtained 911 recordings detail the hours leading up to the discovery of an 11-year-old Utah girl and her mother dead inside a Las Vegas hotel room in an apparent murder-suicide.
Addi Smith and her mother, Tawnia McGeehan, lived in West Jordan and had traveled to Nevada for the JAMZ cheerleading competition.
The calls show a growing sense of urgency from family members and coaches, and several hours passing before relatives learned what happened.
MORE | Murder-Suicide
Below is a timeline of the key moments, according to dispatch records. All times are Pacific Time.
10:33 a.m. — Call 1
After Addi and her mother failed to appear at the cheerleading competition, Addi’s father and stepmother called dispatch for a welfare check.
Addi and her mother were staying at the Rio hotel. The father told dispatch that hotel security had already attempted contact.
“Security went up and knocked on the door. There’s no answer or response it doesn’t look like they checked out or anything…”
11:18 a.m. and 11:27 a.m. — Calls 2 and 3
As concern grew, Addi’s coach contacted the police two times within minutes.
“We think the child possibly is in imminent danger…”
11:26 a.m. — Call 4
Addi’s stepmother placed another call to dispatch, expressing escalating concern.
“We are extremely concerned we believe that something might have seriously happened.”
She said that Tawnia’s car was still at the hotel.
Police indicated officers were on the way.
2:26 p.m. — Call 5
Nearly three hours after the initial welfare check request, fire personnel were en route to the scene. It appeared they had been in contact with hotel security.
Fire told police that they were responding to a possible suicide.
“They found a note on the door.”
2:35 p.m. — Call 6
Emergency medical personnel at the scene told police they had located two victims.
“It’s going to be gunshot wound to the head for both patients with notes”
A dispatcher responded:
“Oh my goodness that’s not okay.”
2:36 p.m. — Call 7
Moments later, fire personnel relayed their assessment to law enforcement:
“It’s going to be a murder suicide, a juvenile and a mother.”
2:39 p.m. — Call 8
Unaware of what had been discovered, Addi’s father called dispatch again.
“I’m trying to file a missing persons report for my daughter.”
He repeats the details he knows for the second time.
3:13 p.m. — Call 9
Father and stepmother call again seeking information and continue to press for answers.
“We just need some information. There was a room check done around 3:00 we really don’t know where to start with all of this Can we have them call us back immediately?”
Dispatch responded:
“As soon as there’s a free officer, we’ll have them reach out to you.”
4:05 p.m. — Call 10
More than an hour later, Addi’s father was put in contact with the police on the scene. He pleaded for immediate action.
“I need someone there I need someone there looking in that room”
The officer confirmed that they had officers currently in the room.
Addi’s father asks again what they found, if Addi and her mother are there, and if their things were missing.
The officer, who was not on scene, said he had received limited information.
5:23 p.m. — Call 11
Nearly seven hours after the first welfare check request, Addi’s grandmother contacted police, describing conflicting information circulating within the family.
“Some people are telling us that they were able to get in, and they were not in the hotel room, and other people saying they were not able to get in the hotel room, and we need to know”
She repeated the details of the case. Dispatch said officers will call her back once they have more information.
Around 8:00 p.m. — Press Conference
Later that evening, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police held a news conference confirming that Addi and her mother, Tawnia McGeehan, were found dead inside the hotel room.
The investigation remains ongoing.
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Utah
Ban on AI glasses in Utah classrooms inches closer to passing
SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — AI glasses could allow you to get answers, snap photos, access audio and take phone calls—and now a proposal moving through the legislature would ban the glasses from Utah school classrooms.
“I think it’s a great idea,” said Kizzy Guyton Murphy, a mother who accompanied her child’s class on a field trip to the state Capitol on Wednesday. “You can’t see inside what the student is looking at, and it’s just grounds for cheating.”
Mom Tristan Davies Seamons also sees trouble with AI glasses.
“I don’t think they should have any more technology in schools than they currently have,” she said.
Her twin daughters, fourth graders Finley and Grayson, don’t have cell phones yet.
“Not until we’re like 14,” said Grayson, adding they do have Chromebooks in school.
2News sent questions to the Utah State Board of Education:
- Does it have reports of students using AI glasses?
- Does it see cheating and privacy as major concerns?
- Does it support a ban from classrooms?
Matt Winters, USBE AI specialist, said the board has not received reports from school districts of students with AI glasses.
“Local Education Agencies (school districts) have local control over these decisions based on current law and code,” said Winters. “The Board has not taken a position on AI glasses.
MORE | Utah State Legislature:
Some districts across the country have reportedly put restrictions on the glasses in schools.
“I think it should be up to the teachers,” said Briauna Later, another mother who is all for preventing cheating, but senses a ban could leave administrators with tired eyes.
“It’s one more thing for the administration to have to keep track of,” said Later.
The proposal, HB 42, passed the House and cleared a Senate committee on Wednesday.
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