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.

Shaylyn Bergeson lost her life at approximately 8:45 p.m. at the Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City after undergoing a craniotomy, her mother, Jesi Bergeson, said in a Facebook post.

Bergeson said that her daughter passed “comfortably and quickly,” which allowed doctors to perform a circulatory death organ transplant.

“Our baby was able to save four lives and someone’s vision. The transplant team was able to retrieve her liver, kidneys, heart valves and corneas.”

She continued: “We again are overwhelmed with how blessed we truly are and although we are completely devastated, we are also so proud and overjoyed for those five individuals who are getting a phone call with the answer to a prayer they have been desperately asking for is now possible.”

Shaylyn was playing in the backyard of her north Rexburg home Monday when she accidentally fell out of a tree and landed on a rebar that punctured the left side of her brain, according to a GoFundMe campaign set up on the family’s behalf.

She was firstly taken to the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center but was then airlifted to the Primary Children’s Hospital where doctors performed a craniotomy and removed half of her skull to relieve the immense amount of pressure in her brain.

Bergeson said in a separate post that she recently had a conversation with her daughter about organ donors where she said she would be one if the time ever came.

“She without a blink of an eye said she wanted to donate everything she could. Our angel has just always been the sweetest, kindest, and most selfless lil girl her entire life. Unfortunately, God placed the desire for us to have that organ conversation on my heart for a reason.”

Shaylyn’s older sister, Briauna, died in 2016. Briauna had a rare chromosomal abnormality and spent the last three years of her life in hospice care.

“Sitting here this morning I am unable to sleep and the thoughts keep creeping into my head,” Kurt Bergeson posted on the family’s GoFundMe page, on Wednesday. “Why did this happen? What could I have done to stop this?”’

His post also thanked the family’s friends and relatives for helping them to grow their network of supporters.