For example, according to a state report, Montana’s total childcare capacity met 44% of the estimated demand in 2021, and infant care capacity met only 34% of the estimated demand. Garfield County met only 23% of the potential demand for children under 6. Nationally, the rural health advisory committee has found, childcare deserts are most likely to be located in “low-income rural census tracts.”

In a survey of 216 rural hospitals in 10 states, family practice doctors delivered babies in 67% of the hospitals, and at 27% of the hospitals they were the only ones who delivered babies. The data counted babies delivered from 2013 to 2017. And, the authors found, if those family physicians hadn’t been there, many patients would have driven an average of 86 miles round-trip for care.

The races have emerged as some of the most hotly contested and costliest contests on the ballot since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating the consitutional right to an abortion. The decision shifted the abortion debate to states, creating a “new era” in state supreme court elections, said Douglas Keith, senior counsel in the judiciary program at the Brennan Center for Justice, which tracks spending in judicial races.

The ACLU of Montana – representing Montanans from across the State – filed a Complaint challenging a new law that seeks to erase 2S-LGBTQIA+ Montanans from dozens of sections of the Montana Code.

The federal government’s top health official said this week that he is “deeply alarmed” by a recent drop in the number of Montana children who are covered by Medicaid. The Biden administration urged the state health department to do more to ensure that eligible youth keep their health insurance as it conducts its first review of Medicaid rolls since states were prohibited from removing participants during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ACLU of Montana has filed a lawsuit challenging a law that defines the word “sex” throughout state code as either male or female, based on a person’s biology at birth. The plaintiffs argue the law denies legal recognition and protections to people who are gender non-conforming.

It’s the third lawsuit stemming from Senate Bill 458 alone since Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte signed it into law in May. Gianforte this year signed legislation to ban drag events in public spaces and gender-affirming care for trans youth. None have escaped legal challenges so far.

The nonprofit’s lawsuit, filed this week in Missoula County District Court, requests the court declare the law unconstitutional in part as because it “potentially eliminates discrimination protections for transgender, intersex, and nonbinary people” in a number of settings, as well as protections from “discrimination in general under the Montana Human Rights Act.”

"The legislature seemed to be trying to adopt a quasi-medical definition of sex that actually, if you talk to any health care professional, is completely unworkable and is completely undefined to an ordinary Montanan," said Alex Rate, the Legal Director for the ACLU.

This case represents the next major fight for abortion access nationwide since the Court reversed Roe v. Wade over a year ago in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision.

But the case is about more than just the FDA’s approval process for mifepristone, one of two medications currently used for early abortions in the United States. It’s about the regulatory power of the FDA in general. And even more dangerous than that, it’s the first real test of the conservative legal movement’s strategy to resurrect the Comstock Act to ban abortion—and maybe even contraception—nationwide.

Attorney General Bob Ferguson applauded the Supreme Court’s decision to pass over the case and to leave in place a federal appeals court ruling upholding the law.

“This is a victory for LGBTQ+ civil rights,” he said in a statement. “The research is clear — conversion therapy does not work, and can be particularly harmful to minors. This law passed the Legislature with strong bipartisan support. I’m proud of my legal team for successfully defending this important law.”

“We’re in a time where we have folks coming out and reclaiming that term of two-spirit and stepping into those roles and finding ways that we can heal our people,” Viera said. “That’s something that I think that we’re working on as a community.”

As lawmakers take a deeper look during the interim at how to hire and retain childcare workers in Montana and keep providers operational, the Gianforte administration announced $3 million in federal funds are available for workers in the industry who have to pay for childcare of their own.

These self-identified “abolitionists” believe fervently that abortion is homicide. Most also want pregnant people who seek abortion to be imprisoned or even face the death penalty. And one of the prongs of their approach is “agitation.” In other words, AHA members are encouraged to be confrontational. You can see evidence of this on Herdon’s YouTube channel, where recent videos show him speaking on the floor of the state legislature, but older ones feature AHA actions. In one video, Herdon’s children sing a song with lyrics referring to abortion as “child sacrifice” and “a Holocaust disguised.”

However, regardless of where trans people live in the United States, they often face discrimination within health care. That includes being denied insurance coverage for routine sexual or reproductive screenings that are still treated as women’s health issues like Pap smears and mammograms, according to the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey. Others must teach their medical providers about trans people in order to receive proper care. Often they are asked invasive questions.

Harvey and Mumford aren’t alone. A growing number of students on college campuses nationwide are stepping in to provide other students with free or low-cost emergency contraceptives, birth control, and menstrual products.

They are also pushing back against threats to their reproductive freedom since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision last year, which eliminated federal abortion protections.

Jen Jackson Quintano, who owns an arborist business with her husband and is also the founder of the Pro-Voice Project, echoed concerns about the hospital’s future. Health care “is a house of cards no matter where you are in the rural West,” she said. “But our house of cards was standing. Our doctors were willing to make sacrifices to work here because Sandpoint is worth it. And then suddenly it was no longer tenable.”

The plaintiffs argue that the law is an unconstitutional content- and viewpoint-based restriction on speech. They also argue it does not clearly define what actions are illegal, leading people to censor their own speech out of concern for violating the law.

A federal judge’s decision whether to permanently block Montana’s drag ban law will have to wait. First, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will make a decision on the state’s appeal of the initial injunction that temporarily blocked the law in October.

Since April, nearly 5,000 fewer Montanans are receiving SNAP benefits. But that doesn’t necessarily mean fewer people qualify, said Lorianne Burhop, chief policy officer for the Montana Food Bank Network. Clients without internet access, unlimited cellphone minutes, or the ability to travel to a public assistance office may not be able to jump through the hoops to keep their benefits.