Montana on August 20 became the ninth U.S. state to place a proposal on the November ballot that will allow voters to decide whether to enshrine abortion access in the state constitution.
Ballot Issue #14, if passed, would amend the state constitution “to expressly provide a right to make and carry out decisions about one’s own pregnancy, including the right to abortion,” according to the secretary of state’s office.
The initiative would guarantee the right to abortion before fetal viability, enshrining a 1999 Montana Supreme Court ruling that held that pre-viability abortions fall under a constitutional “right to privacy.”
The language in the proposed amendment is similar to that being proposed in other states such as Missouri and Florida — states with strong current pro-life protections which also will place proposed constitutional amendments expanding abortion before voters Nov. 5.
Abortion supporters and pro-life advocates have been battling at the ballot box in the two years since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 repeal of Roe v. Wade. Voters in Montana, South Dakota, Arizona, Nevada, Missouri, Colorado, New York, Maryland, and Florida will see abortion-related ballot measures in November.
The Montana measure would “prohibit the government from denying or burdening the right to abortion before fetal viability,” prohibit the government from “denying or burdening access to an abortion” when a doctor determines it is necessary to protect the woman’s “life or health,” and would “prevent the government from penalizing patients, healthcare providers, or anyone who assists someone in exercising their right to make and carry out voluntary decisions about their pregnancy.”
On March 21, the Montana Supreme Court overturned the state attorney general’s block of the measure, holding that Attorney General Austin Knudsen “erred” when his office determined that the proposed pro-abortion ballot measure was “legally insufficient” to be placed on the ballot in this year’s election.
Montana’s Catholic bishops issued a joint letter in May denouncing the proposed pro-abortion constitutional amendment, calling the initiative an attack on the “recognition of the infinite dignity enjoyed by all persons” that fails to respect “life as a precious gift from God and recognize our sacred duty to nurture and protect every human life.”
The statement — signed by Bishop Austin Vetter of Helena, Bishop Jeffrey Fleming, and Bishop Emeritus Michael Warfel of Great Falls-Billings — urged Catholics in the state to refrain from signing the petition and to pray for the initiative’s defeat, according to a Catholic News Agency report.
During the 2022 midterm elections, voters in Montana considered Legislative Referendum 131, which would have protected babies who are born alive after attempted abortions. That measure failed to pass.
The same 1999 Montana Supreme Court ruling that opened the door to the legality of pre-viability abortions in Montana was also cited recently to invalidate a state law requiring minors to obtain parental consent for abortion. The Montana Supreme Court unanimously ruled Aug. 15 that the parental consent for abortions law, in place since 2013, “violates the fundamental right of a minor to control their body and destiny.”
