A legislative guide created to help citizens and lobbyists engage with legislators — a fixture on Capitol Hill for more than two decades — has been banished from several locations by legislative leaders upset about a Planned Parenthood advertisement in this year’s publication.
The Planned Parenthood ad in The Utah Legislative Guide, published by The Exoro Group, consisted of a hot pink page with the words “Abortion is health care.” Conservative Republican Rep. Trevor Lee, R-Layton, objected to the ad and raised his grievance with his GOP colleagues and House leadership.
“A lot of us were, ‘Why? Why are we having this put in our faces here when the vast majority just do not agree with that?’” Lee, of Layton, said in an interview. “It’s not something we want. … If it’s just like, you know, treatment for women, great. That’s fine. We all agree with that. But when it starts being like, ‘Abortion is Healthcare,’ we don’t agree with that. We don’t think it is right.”
Lee said the issue was brought up in the Republican caucus, and a decision was made to change the long-standing practice.
“Planned Parenthood has been in [the guide] in the past, but this year it was political, I mean, specifically a political statement that we as a majority have passed legislation against,” Lee said in an interview. “Are we going to start having everyone come and put political statements in these books that we use as a guide for just information on legislators? I don’t want that. I know the speaker doesn’t want it. The Senate president didn’t want it. So, they asked for it to be removed.”
Planned Parenthood is currently suing the state for what it alleges is an unconstitutional near-total abortion ban. Although the law has been blocked for nearly three years as part of that case, GOP lawmakers are continuing efforts to circumvent the court-issued injunction this session.
A public records request for electronic communications about the guide, and mentions of Planned Parenthood, yielded only a fundraising email to another Republican representative from the anti-abortion group Pro-Life Utah.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) The 2025 Utah State Legislative Guide, in Salt Lake City on Friday, Feb. 7, 2025.
‘Disappointing but not surprising’
The guides, which have typically been available on tables outside the House and Senate chambers since it was first published in 2004, were prohibited from those areas. In addition, legislative leaders decided not to allow the distribution of a guide to help visitors identify legislators that has been published by the Utah Education Association.
Last year’s guide also included an advertisement for Planned Parenthood — although it was decidedly less bold. It included a photograph of a health care provider meeting a mother and her two children, and read, “At Planned Parenthood, our mission is to ensure all people keep access to the care and resources they need to make informed decisions about their bodies, their lives, and their families.”
Ads from various organizations — including the AFL-CIO, League of Women Voters, Utah League of Cities and Towns, and the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah — were published to defray some of the costs. Planned Parenthood, in particular, had run ads in the guide for years.
“To maintain consistency in the materials provided to the public, the Legislature has decided not to distribute external publications at our public-facing desks,” Alexa Peterson, spokesperson for House Speaker Mike Schultz, said in a statement.
(Rick Egan |The Salt Lake Tribune) Legislative Guide Book on the desk of Rep. Doug Owens, D-Millcreek, on Friday, Feb 7, 2025.
Senate President Stuart Adams said he didn’t have a hand in the decision regarding the guide.
“I was not involved in that,” Adams said. “I got told about it after the fact. But I am aware of it.”
Kathryn Boyd, President & CEO of Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, makes no apologies for ruffling feathers.
“We stand by our message: Abortion is health care. Period. It is health care that Utahns rely on, and it is legal in Utah up to 18 weeks,” Boyd said. “It is disappointing but not surprising that in response to a simple, factual statement, the Legislature moves to ban another book.”
‘Not a forum for the battle of ideas’
Maura Carabello, president and owner of The Exoro Group said the firm publishes about 7,000 of the guides a year, a roadmap to help visitors to the Capitol find out who their representatives are and how to contact them. About 1,200 of the guides had been distributed outside the legislative chambers.
Carabello said she and her lobbying partner at the time first published the guide because they needed it and they realized it would be a useful tool for others at the Capitol.
“I was a little surprised by the reaction. It was not the reaction I had to the ad,” Carabello said. “I was asked what we were going to do about it. We’re a private company and the ad was controversial but it wasn’t pornographic or anything.”
Carabello said she didn’t find out about the decision by legislative leaders until she got a call from a lobbyist telling her the guide had been banned and, after that, “it was a little spicy for a few days.”
“I might have been a dope, but we didn’t anticipate it,” she said. “I think it fits our cultural moment.”
Carabello said a few advertisers have called and asked about their ads, and Exoro has given them a partial refund for the books that aren’t going to be handed out. It has also made her reassess how they approach the guide next year.
“I am standing by our decision, but one thing I have realized is that the legislative guide was never intended to be a battleground for political ideas,” she said. “This was not intended to be a political book that held political ideals — and to be honest, I didn’t think about it. It was not on our radar, so we may modify our policy next year to say, ‘This is not a forum for the battle of ideas and messaging to the Legislature.’”
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