This bill was tabled in Senate Public Health, Welfare & Safety Committee on a party-line vote with no discussion and zero questions directed to the medical, legal, economic, and community experts who testified in support of it.
Sen. Jen Gross’s SB 437 would have affirmed that Montanans have a fundamental right to abortion. Note: This would not have been a new right in Montana. In 1999 the Montana State Supreme Court affirmed that Montanans’ constitutional right to privacy includes our reproductive rights. Senate Bill 437 would have codified that right, helping protect it from unconstitutional attacks such as Senate Bill 154 and House Bill 721. It also would have repealed anti-reproductive health, anti-sexual health policies that are currently tangled in the court system due to their unconstitutionality. Those policies included a ban on sex education taught by abortion-providing organizations SRHC members Blue Mountain Clinic and Planned Parenthood of Montana, a law restricting access to telemedicine for abortion, a required 24-hour waiting period before receiving an abortion, and more.
