Utah sees over 270% increase in individuals leaving polygamous communities, advocates say

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Five years ago, Utah decriminalized polygamy. Now, service providers are seeing an incline in reports of abuse among polygamist communities.

“People that live in these cultures [are] pretty amazing people,” Tonia Tewell, executive director at Holding Out HELP, a group helping those escaping polygamist communities, said. “They’re just stuck under a system that is set up sadly to fail them.”

Decriminalizing polygamy

In 2020, the Utah State Legislature passed a law that reduced the punishment for bigamy (the act of marrying an individual who is already legally married) from a third degree-felony to an infraction.

Tewell says the number of people needing help has spiked by 273% since the law passed, along with a similar trend in reports of abuse. “It’s shifted what we thought about polygamy.”

The law passed both houses of the legislature with wide margins, passing the House 70-3 and the Senate 27-0 on its final readings.

Tewell was one of multiple advocates on Capitol Hill asking lawmakers to not pass the bill.

Criminal allegations

“Utah is a safe space now for people not only to live polygamy, but to grow their criminal enterprises,” Tewell added.

In December 2024, Samuel Bateman, the leader of a polygamist sect, a was sentenced to 50 years in prison after conspiring to coerce young girls into committing criminal sex acts. He was also convicted of a scheme to kidnap the girls from protective custody.

In 2022, former members of the Kingston Group, a polygamist sect based in Utah, filed a lawsuit against the organization’s leaders. Documents allege underage marriages and child labor are common in the group.

According to a document published by the former Attorneys General of Arizona and Utah, “Bleeding the beast” is an expression reportedly used among fundamentalist communities that refers to exploiting government financial assistance.

“Bleeding the beast is trying to take money from the government, which is essentially us taxpayers,” Tewell said. “So, we’re footing the bill.”

Fulfilling a need

Tewell began Holding Out HELP in 2008 after a friend asked if her family would be willing to house a woman escaping polygamy. She says it has only grown since.

“We became kind of the underground railroad for three years,” Tewell said, adding that at one point, there were 16 people living in her home.

Since the law passed, Tewell says the amount of people needing their help has skyrocketed.

“I think the number one thing we’re all struggling with here in Utah is housing,” Tewell added. “You need a roof over your head and your basic needs met and get out of survival mode in order to move forward.”

Tewell says mental health providers, case managers, and basic supplies are also needed.

Anyone interested in supporting the organization, can visit their website.