Utah state Sen. Deidre Henderson, a Republican representing Spanish Fork, plans to file a bill when the state legislature goes back in session in January that would reduce the penalties against polygamists.

While the move may seem odd for a state that for decades has battled with how to handle polygamy among the more fundamentalist sects of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – and where in 2017 the practice was made a felony punishable by up to five years in prison – proponents of the legislation say easing penalties would help members of plural families come forward to report abuse and fraud.

“The general intent behind it is to make sure we are not continuing to create a situation where the victims and witnesses of crimes are afraid to report it because of the lifestyle that they’ve lived,” Henderson told The Salt Lake City Tribune.

Legal scholars, however, are skeptical that reducing the penalties for polygamy will encourage more people in abusive situations to come forward to report the crimes.

“I’m not sure that redoing the law to make polygamy less of an offense will have the intended effect they hope for,” Casey Faucon, an assistant professor at the University of Alabama Law School, told Fox News. “It takes more than just changing a law to get people to come forward and report abusive situations.”

While Henderson did not respond to Fox News’ request for comment, other proponents of the bill have suggested it would not just lower the general penalty for polygamy from a felony to misdemeanor but strengthen the ability to prosecute polygamists found to have committed crimes such as abuse, human smuggling or fraud.

Along with the other changes to the law in 2017, legislators had added penalties of up to 15 years in prison for polygamists found guilty of those crimes. Connor Boyack, president of the libertarian-leaning Libertas Institute, said the new legislation would make it so prosecutors don’t have to prove polygamy and a secondary crime in order to file charges, just that polygamy was a factor in the other crime.

In an interview published on Sunday, Williamson, a best-selling author and Oprah Winfrey’s spiritual adviser, openly admitted she wasn’t thrilled with the public’s response to her performance last month.

“I hope that this time my delivery will be more aligned with my substance,” she told USA Today. “I don’t regret the substance of anything I said, but I understand that my delivery made me vulnerable to mockery.”

Marianne Williamson, who vowed to beat the United States President Donald Trump with a politics of “love,” said she plans to “just be myself” during Tuesday’s debate in Detroit.

This time around she plans to avoid traditional debate preparation, she said, and will instead rely on her experience thus far on the campaign trail.

“I did a lot of that last time. This time I’m seeing things a little bit differently,” Williamson said.

“Every day on the campaign trail is preparation. Every day you’re thinking about issues, writing about issues, talking about issues, learning about issues,” she added. “It’s a continuous process. To me, that’s the best preparation.”