A invoice that will have allowed pregnant girls to drive within the HOV lane, additional codifying in Utah legislation personhood standing for unborn fetuses, failed in a Senate committee assembly Monday.
Rep. Stephanie Gricius’ invoice was voted down 3-2 by the Senate Transportation, Public Utilities, Vitality and Know-how Committee. The proposal was beforehand really useful by a Home committee and handed out of the Home, though each Republican and Democratic lawmakers voted towards it.
The freshman Republican lawmaker informed the committee that the invoice is “each life-affirming and pro-woman,” noting that if a close to ban on abortion presently held up in courts goes into impact, there might be a rise within the variety of pregnant girls within the state.
“As a mother who has thrown up on the aspect of the freeway many, many occasions in my very own private historical past, I do know that perhaps having an additional 5 minutes to get to the place you’re going could make a really, very large distinction,” Gricius mentioned.
Gricius additionally argued that it might cut back emissions and congestion on freeways, as a result of it might enable extra folks to drive in underutilized carpool lanes.
[Get the latest Utah political news in the new Daily Buzz email newsletter. Sign up here.]
Each Democrats on the committee voted towards the invoice. The lone Republican to hitch them, Sen. Don Ipson, R-St. George, mentioned he opposed it as a result of he was frightened that it would take federal funding from the Utah Division of Transportation.
The director of legislative affairs for UDOT, Leif Elder, mentioned the division reached out to the Federal Freeway Administration and confirmed that the invoice wouldn’t break any federal legal guidelines, however mentioned, “There may be some steering from the Federal Freeway Administration that does say {that a} fetus can’t be counted as an occupant.”
There’s a “very small risk” that beneath the steering, Elder added, some federal funds may very well be withheld.
“(There’s) most likely no one extra pro-life on this planet than I’m,” Ipson mentioned, explaining his vote, “I simply … suppose we’re asking the Freeway Patrol to do the inconceivable to attempt to implement this. And I’m involved that our federal funding on our highways is in danger.”