138
Per Curiam
The court made that declaration, not on the ground that the provision violates federal law, but rather on the ground that the provision was not severable from another provision of the same statute, purporting to regulate abortions up to 20 weeks' gestational age, which had been struck down as unconstitutional. The court's severability ruling was based on its view that the Utah Legislature would not have wanted to regulate the later-term abortions unless it could regulate the earlier-term abortions as well. Whatever the validity of such speculation as a general matter, in the present case it is flatly contradicted by a provision in the very part of the Utah Code at issue, explicitly stating that each statutory provision was to be regarded as having been enacted independently of the others. Because we regard the Court of Appeals' determination as to the Utah Legislature's intent to be irreconcilable with that body's own statement on the subject, we grant the petition for certiorari as to this aspect of the judgment of the Court of Appeals, and summarily reverse.
Utah law, as amended by legislation enacted in 1991, establishes two regimes of regulation for abortion, based on the term of the pregnancy. With respect to pregnancies 20 weeks old or less, § 302(2) permits abortions only under five enumerated circumstances, Utah Code Ann. § 76-7-302(2) (1995). With respect to pregnancies of more than 20 weeks, § 302(3) permits abortions under only three of the five circumstances specified in § 302(2). § 76-7-302(3).1 In the
1 The two subsections state: "(2) An abortion may be performed in this state only under the following circumstances: "(a) in the professional judgment of the pregnant woman's attending physician, the abortion is necessary to save the pregnant woman's life; "(b) the pregnancy is the result of rape or rape of a child . . . that was reported to a law enforcement agency prior to the abortion; "(c) the pregnancy is the result of incest . . . and the incident was reported to a law enforcement agency prior to the abortion;
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