Deseret News Article Rating

How will Utah actually enforce its abortion trigger ban? There's not an easy answer

Jul 14, 2022 View Original Article
  • Bias Rating

    6% Center

  • Reliability

    N/AN/A

  • Policy Leaning

    -22% Somewhat Liberal

  • Politician Portrayal

    -61% Negative

Bias Score Analysis

The A.I. bias rating includes policy and politician portrayal leanings based on the author’s tone found in the article using machine learning. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral.

Sentiments

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Bias Meter

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

56% : Enforcement of the law falls to two state agencies -- the Utah Department of Health (now consolidated into the state's Department of Health and Human Services) -- and the Utah Department of Commerce's Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing.
49% : The law defines the word "abortion" as the "intentional termination or attempted termination of human pregnancy after implantation of a fertilized ovum through a medical procedure carried out by a physician or through a substance used under the direction of a physician."A "physician," as defined under SB174, is "a medical doctor licensed to practice medicine and surgery in the state; an osteopathic physician licensed to practice osteopathic medicine in the state; or a physician employed by the federal government" with similar qualifications.
44% :Beyond that, Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing officials could forward complaints to law enforcement.
44% : Therefore, enforcement of the law appears to be mainly complaint driven.
42% : There are also concerns about how requiring rapes to be reported to law enforcement in order for a woman to be eligible for the exemption could impact rape victims, who might not want to report the rape for a wide variety of reasons, including their own safety.
41% :Gill also said he's "genuinely concerned about revictimizations" of rape victims, and the "collateral consequences" of requiring them to go to law enforcement.
39% : But even though the law is currently on hold (while Utah's other law banning abortion after 18 weeks of pregnancy is in effect), Eller said she and her maternal fetal medicine partners have been getting phone calls from others feeling unsure and at risk over how to treat their patients.
38% : For example, the words "serious risk," "substantial" and "irreversible impairment of a major bodily function" aren't medical definitions, and law enforcement officials could interpret them differently than a physician.
31% : "Sexual assault is underreported as it is, and a lot of individuals will never go to law enforcement," said Rep. Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City.
30% : Utah's trigger law is mum on pharmacies and whether they would be held legally responsible for an illegal abortion -- and that lack of clarity is making some pharmacists nervous, possibly to the point of avoiding dispensing certain medications, including some used for treatments other than abortion.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.

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