Beginning on January 1st, 2019, women in Utah seeking an abortion are required to first
Planned Parenthood Association of Utah (PPAU) has lamented the module. On their own fact sheet about a 2019 bill prohibiting abortion, they write that they "do not rely on the state-mandated 'informed consent' script written by the Utah Legislature, in consultation with anti-abortion groups, when providing health care." Then in a recent press conference, CEO Karrie Galloway stated that the module was “biased ”(comments start at 9:36).
While they make their disdain for the module clear, they fail to mention that one of their top executives, Vice President of Public Policy Heather Stringfellow, was a member of the very committee that developed it. Stringfellow was present at every meeting and was privy to all discussions and emails pertinent to the content to be included, as she worked alongside maternal fetal medicine doctors, the President of Pro-Life Utah, and other health department officials.
What's more is that the very reason that SB 118 passed was due to overwhelming evidence (from a comprehensive investigation carried out by Pro-Life Utah) that Planned Parenthood was NOT providing women the information required of them by law. In other words, it was their complete failure to accurately inform women that led to the module being created.
Planned Parenthood has a clear financial interest in women having abortions and therefore seeks to keep them as uninformed as possible about what the procedure actually entails, risks, fetal development, and other options (lest a woman chooses to carry to term). It is increasingly difficult to take them seriously when they complain about a module that they helped create. Nonetheless, we are grateful to the health department and to the legislature for working so hard to ensure women are much more accurately informed before making this decision.