Montana voters will decide whether to enshrine abortion rights in state constitution
Abortion rights advocates successfully got a measure that would guarantee the right to an abortion placed on the November ballot.
Montana voters will decide whether the state constitution will guarantee the right to an abortion after the secretary of state on Aug. 20 officially cleared the way for an abortion rights referendum to appear on the November ballot.
The ballot measure, designated Constitutional Initiative 128, asks voters if they want to amend the Montana Constitution to “prohibit the government from denying or burdening the right to abortion before fetal viability.” The language of the measure says that the amendment “would also prohibit the government from denying or burdening access to an abortion when a treating healthcare professional determines it is medically indicated to protect the pregnant patient’s life or health. CI-128 prevents 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.”
The measure was greenlit after a monthslong effort by Republicans to keep the constitutional amendment from making it onto the ballot.
In January, Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, a Republican, blocked the ballot initiative, saying it was “legally insufficient.” But the Montana Supreme Court overturned Knudsen’s decision in March, allowing Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights, a citizen-led group, to collect signatures in order to get the measure on the ballot.
After the state Supreme Court ruling, Knudsen then tried to rewrite the text of the ballot initiative to include politically charged rhetoric in an attempt to doom the measure on the ballot. His effort was once again rebuffed by the state Supreme Court, which rewrote the text of the measure.
Then Republican Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen said that she would not count “inactive voter” signatures on the petitions to get the abortion measure onto the ballot. However, a district court judge approved an order that directed Jacobsen to include the signatures of voters considered inactive, voters whose address changes could not be verified by election administrators.
Ultimately, Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights submitted 117,000 signatures in July, roughly double the number needed to get the measure on the ballot. The Montana secretary of state’s office officially certified the measure on Aug. 20.
“This election is critical in defending Montana’s way of life and our fundamental rights. Freedom and reproductive rights unites all generations of Montanans. We stand on the shoulders of older generations who began this work before Roe, and we will finish this work now,” Kiersten Iwai, executive director of Forward Montana, which worked with Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights to get the initiative on the ballot, told the Montana Independent. “Montana voters are ready to vote YES on CI-128 to protect their rights and keep government out of personal decisions about pregnancy and abortion.”
Planned Parenthood Advocates of Montana praised the group for successfully getting the measure on the ballot and is now urging Montanans to vote yes on the measure.
“We could not be more proud to be part of the efforts to protect abortion rights, and ensure that Montanans and their families can continue to make their own abortion and pregnancy-related decisions – not the government,” Planned Parenthood of Montana wrote in a post on X.
Montana is the eighth state to put abortion rights on the ballot this fall.
Republican lawmakers in the state have repeatedly tried to ban abortion.
In May 2023, Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte signed a 15-week abortion ban that was passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature. That law is currently blocked from enforcement as legal challenges make their way through the courts.
In 2022, 52.6% of Montana voters rejected a ballot measure that said: “A born-alive infant, including an infant born in the course of an abortion, must be treated as a legal person under the laws of the state … A health care provider who is present at the time a born-alive infant is born shall take all medically appropriate and reasonable actions to preserve the life and health of the infant. … A health care provider who purposely, knowingly, or negligently violates [section 4] is guilty of a felony.”
Rebekah Sager contributed to reporting for this story.
