The 2026 Utah legislative session is headed into its third week. Rep. Nicholeen Peck introduced House Joint Resolution 12 this session in hopes of strengthening Utah families. The resolution centers around family and marriage in Utah and is currently in the House Rules Committee.
“There is clearly some sort of connection between the messaging about family and marriages, and what is happening in our state with those changes in the marriage and family population,” said Peck, a Republican representative for District 28 covering the Tooele area.
This is only Peck’s second year in the Legislature, but she’s been an educator and family advocate for over 20 years. She’s been a foster parent since 1999, launched a parenting program called “Teaching Self-Government,” served as the president of the Worldwide Organization for Women, and authored 13 books.
Now she’s proposing a resolution aimed at strengthening families.
“We just need to be really mindful of that, making sure that we promote the two-parent family,” Peck said. “This resolution is highlighting the importance of the parent-child bond. It's talking about the needs that families have for each other, and that children need to have for their parents.”
H.J.R 12 is titled “Encouraging Strong Family Units." Peck said it addresses fertility rates.
“There's a lot of young people that it's their goal to get married and have a family but then they feel like for whatever reason it's out of reach for them,” she said.
Emily Harris is a senior demographer at the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute. Her research confirms that Utah, the state that used to lead the nation in birthrates, has been steadily declining since 2012.
“Utah's total fertility rate is at 1.8; in 2022, Utah's fertility rate was fourth-highest. This most recent data point shows that it's 10th-highest,” Harris said.
Harris said legislation does not typically have an effect on fertility rates, and increasing them is a long-term goal.
"It's a really hard needle to move," Harris said. "There are a lot of things that cause people to make decisions on whether or not they want to have children or more children.”