An initiative to protect the right to an abortion in Montana will be on the ballot in November, after the secretary of state officially approved and certified the measure late Tuesday.
Montana will be the eighth state to put an abortion question in front of voters this fall. Abortion protections have won every time they’ve been on a ballot since Roe v. Wade was overturned two years ago, and supporters are hoping the measures this year add to that total.
Abortion is legal in Montana at any point before fetal viability because of a 25-year-old state Supreme Court ruling that found the right to privacy in the state’s constitution also protected abortion.
But abortion rights advocates are pushing for extra protections from the Republican governor and GOP-controlled Legislature and don’t want to leave courts as their last line of defense.
The measure would add abortion protections into the state constitution, prohibiting any laws to ban or restrict abortion before fetal viability.
Republican lawmakers have tried to overturn the law, and last year the legislature passed a new law saying the right to privacy does not protect the right to an abortion. It has yet to be challenged in court.
“Since Roe was overturned, extreme anti-abortion politicians have used every trick in the book to take away our freedoms and ban abortion completely,” said Martha Fuller, president & CEO of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Montana. “The government cannot overstep into our most personal healthcare decisions, and Montanans must vote Yes [on the measure] to protect their right to abortion and pregnancy-related care.”
The initiative in Montana faced numerous legal hurdles as state officials fought to keep it off the ballot.
Attorney General Austin Knudsen (R) initially blocked the proposal after a required review by his office last winter. After the state Supreme Court overruled his decision, he then rewrote the initiative’s ballot summary language, which Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights immediately challenged as “confusing, argumentative, and prejudicial.”
The state Supreme Court ultimately ruled in their favor and wrote a new “neutral” ballot summary, allowing signatures to be gathered.
But once the signatures were submitted, Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen (R) at first disqualified the ones of inactive voters from counting toward the minimum threshold. A district court judge eventually sided with the plaintiffs, allowing all signatures to be counted.
Montana will also play host to one of the year’s highest-profile Senate races, with Democrats hoping the abortion measure will boost turnout for Sen. Jon Tester (D). Tester’s race could determine which party controls the upper chamber next year, and a poll last week showed him trailing Republican candidate Tim Sheehy.