Utah governor signs bills decriminalizing polygamy, disposal of fetal remains

by LINDSAY WHITEHURST Associated Press

Tue, March 31st 2020, 1:23 PM UTC

FILE - In this Sept. 26, 2015, file photo, community members from Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., attend a memorial service in Hildale, Utah, for 12 women and children swept away in a deadly flash flood in a community on the Utah-Arizona border. The community has been home for more than a century to a polygamous sect that is an offshoot of mainstream Mormonism. The recent slaying in Mexico of nine people who belonged to a Mormon offshoot community where some people practice polygamy shines a new spotlight on the ongoing struggle for the mainstream church to fight the association with plural marriage groups because of its past. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

FILE - In this Oct. 25, 2017, file photo, women, who are members of a community on the Utah-Arizona border that has been home for more than a century to a polygamous sect that is an offshoot of mainstream Mormonism, gather for a photograph, in Colorado City, Ariz. The recent slaying in Mexico of nine people who belonged to a Mormon offshoot community where some people practice polygamy shines a new spotlight on the ongoing struggle for the mainstream church to fight the association with plural marriage groups because of its past. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 27, 2020, file photo, the Utah Senate floor is viewed during the Utah legislative session in Salt Lake City. The Utah Legislature is wrapping up its work for the year, capping off a session that saw major changes to the state's polygamy statute, a revision of a voter-approved redistricting law and a compromise on education funding. The 45-day meeting is ending in the shadow of the new coronavirus, which caused widespread cancellations but didn't cause major disruptions in legislative business. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

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FILE - In this Sept. 26, 2015, file photo, community members from Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., attend a memorial service in Hildale, Utah, for 12 women and children swept away in a deadly flash flood in a community on the Utah-Arizona border. The community has been home for more than a century to a polygamous sect that is an offshoot of mainstream Mormonism. The recent slaying in Mexico of nine people who belonged to a Mormon offshoot community where some people practice polygamy shines a new spotlight on the ongoing struggle for the mainstream church to fight the association with plural marriage groups because of its past. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The governor of Utah has signed bills that place new rules on abortion providers in the state and remove the threat of jail time for polygamists.

Republican Gov. Gary Herbert approved bills over the weekend that make the penalty for multiple marriages similar to a traffic ticket, rather than a felony.

Herbert also signed new requirements for abortion clinics and other medical facilities to cremate or bury fetal remains after an abortion or miscarriage, rather than dispose of them with medical waste.

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Backers of that measure argued that it would be more dignified, though opponents have said it chips away at abortion rights.

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