[Source: Great Falls Tribune]

Montana, like all other states, will fall back and rely on its constitution and state law to dictate how abortion will be controlled.

Every state bordering Montana has passed legislation with trigger bans that will take effect within a month.

In 1999, a decision, known as Mazurek vs. Armstrong authored by Justice James C. Nelson found that Montana’s constitution protected a woman’s right to privacy while making medical decisions. Though Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen has asked the state Supreme Court to reconsider that decision, the high court has so far declined to revisit it, leaving abortion supported by legal precedent.

Legal Precedent
In 2021, the Montana Legislature, controlled in both Houses by a large majority of Republicans, passed four different laws that put significant restrictions on the procedure in the state. Those measures were supported by Gov. Greg Gianforte. They were quickly challenged in state court where a judge placed a temporary injunction on the measures until the case, which will likely make its way to the state Supreme Court, will be decided.

This means that abortion, as practiced in Montana, will be largely unchanged for the moment.

On the Ballot This November
A referendum on the Montana ballot in November raises the prospect of criminal charges for health care providers unless they take “all medically appropriate and reasonable actions to preserve the life” of an infant born alive, including after an attempted abortion.  Montana LR-131, the Medical Care Requirements for Born-Alive Infants Measure, is on the ballot in Montana as a legislatively referred state statute on November 8, 2022.

MT VOTING RESOURCE

DEFEND LIFE IN BILLINGS!
Vigil hours 8 am - 8 pm
Outside Planned Parenthood's Abortion Clinic
(100 W. Wicks Lane, Billings Heights)

• Sign up (through your parish or at link below) to pray outside the abortion clinic!  This is NOT a protest but a peaceful, prayerful public witness to the sanctity of all human life from the moment of conception.
• If you can’t pray outside the abortion clinic, please fast and pray throughout the 40 Days for and end to abortion.

• Call:  408-855-3737 or
•  Email: YellowstoneValleyCFL@gmail.com

WEBSITE:
40 Days for Life