Update August 2024:
According to the amended code, Section C26B-7-S204 has been repealed as of May 2024. We are researching to determine if this type of compulsion language is still included elsewhere in the Utah Health Code. You may read the repealed code here https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title26B/Chapter7/C26B-7-S204_2023050320230503.pdf
Original Article:
An overall understanding of what God intended for human free will and sovereignty is not easily summed up in a single Bible verse, but by an understanding of the whole counsel of God. It’s a moral principle to live by, which was captured by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…” Our founders valued individual rights above all. Some of these were later enshrined in our Bill of Rights including the freedom of religion, speech, self-protection, property, privacy and protection from prosecutions and punishment without the benefit of a fair trial of our peers.
The notion that a government could or would mandate a medical procedure in 1791 was absurd. In fact, it would even be a stretch for King George III. However, last March (2023), without any public discussion or vote in the Utah legislature, the following section was included in the State of Utah Health and Human Services Code. This happened without public approval or even public knowledge. Section 26B-7-204 is titled, “Involuntary examination, treatment, isolation, and quarantine,” and subsection (2) states, “the local health department may order involuntary examination, treatment, quarantine, or isolation of the individual and may petition the court to order involuntary examination, treatment, quarantine, or isolation…”
This says very clearly that the state has the legal authority to physically force a medical procedure upon anyone, or examine, quarantine, or isolate that person against their will if DHHS deems it to be in the best interest of the public. As part of the Utah Code this has the full weight of law and is enforceable by law enforcement as such. Without question, the State granting itself this new authority is a departure from our founding principles and has been added as a pushback against the many Americans exercising their God-given freedom to not participate in an experimental medical procedure.
The State of Utah Health and Human Services Code 26B-7-204, in its entirety, dramatically contradicts the principles that we associate with freedom in our country, specifically in the context of “One Nation Under God”. The intention of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution was to guarantee that the rights of the citizens would be held paramount. In fact, the concept of sacrificing the sovereignty of a citizen for the collective is the backbone of communist ideology. Sadly, in our state government today, there seems to be a diminishing value of the individual citizen’s sovereignty in exchange for a collective outcome.
If you value your bodily freedom and believe the State has overstepped its boundaries, then we at Real Impact encourage you to contact your state legislator (Representative Rex P. Shipp & Senator Evan J. Vickers) and express the necessity that all Utah citizens maintain medical sovereignty.
Full Code Section 26B-7-204: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title26B/Chapter7/26B-7-S204.html
