SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Governor Gary Herbert has signed a bill banning abortion after 18 weeks.

House Bill 136, sponsored by Rep. Cheryl Acton, R-West Jordan, bans elective abortions after 18 weeks. It has an exception for cases of rape, incest or the health and safety of the mother.

The bill has already drawn threats of lawsuits from the ACLU of Utah and Planned Parenthood.

“This ban adds to the long list of restrictive abortion policies that legislators have already enacted in this state. For example, Utah already forces people seeking abortion to complete a state-mandated online education module and a face-to-face informed consent session designed to discourage people from seeking abortion services, and then wait 72 hours before receiving abortion care. These medically unnecessary restrictions can cause delays that force abortion later into pregnancy and disproportionately impact women who live in rural areas of our state and families who are economically disadvantaged,” Planned Parenthood said in a statement.

The ACLU tweeted “see you in court, Utah.”

The governor’s office defended his decision to sign it into law.

“Governor Herbert is unapologetically pro-life and believes state lawmakers have chosen an appropriate threshold for protecting the unborn while respecting a woman’s right to choose,” his spokesman, Paul Edwards, said in a statement to FOX 13.

It was included in a list of 119 bills he had signed into law. One bill vetoed, Senate Bill 123, would allow political parties to submit a list of names to replace a congressional vacancy.

In a letter to House Speaker Brad Wilson and Senate President Stuart Adams, Gov. Herbert said he believed SB123 “significantly limits participation and choice in elections.”

The governor also signed House Bill 114, the controversial “stand your ground” law that says people do not have a duty to retreat in the face of an aggressor. The bill has faced criticism that it targets minorities.

On the same day the Utah Supreme Court heard arguments in a challenge to the legislature replacing Proposition 2 (the medical cannabis ballot initiative), the governor signed a series of bills that change how ballot initiatives get before voters.

House Bill 133 changes the effective date that successful initiatives become law, giving the legislature time to review it. House Bill 145 creates a system to see almost real-time who signs a citizen referendum petition (and allows for signature removal at the same time), and House Bill 195 changes the signature threshold. Critics have accused the legislature of overstepping their power over initiatives.

The governor also signed a bill raising the legal smoking age to 21.

To date, Gov. Herbert has signed 306 bills into law from the 2019 legislative session.

Here’s the full list of bills the governor signed on Monday: