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.

A federal judge Friday extended his block on a Montana law that seeks to ban drag story hours in public schools and libraries, saying state attorneys haven’t proven that the events are harmful to children and that the law is written too vaguely.

The law, Senate Bill 458, was passed by this year’s GOP-controlled Legislature, despite vigorous opposition from Democrats and LGBTQ+ rights groups, and signed by Gov. Greg Gianforte, a Republican whose nonbinary adult child was among the bill’s public opponents.

A group of transgender and intersex individuals are suing the state over a new law. Senate Bill 458 revised Montana Code to provide a common definition for the word “sex” when referring to a human.

A person fired two shotgun rounds into the front entry of the Planned Parenthood clinic in Helena Thursday evening, according to local police and a spokesperson from Planned Parenthood of Montana.

A state district court judge in Missoula has blocked Montana’s ban on medical care for minors with gender dysphoria from taking effect while a lawsuit over its constitutionality continues, finding that the new law appears to have “no rational relationship to protecting children.”

Attorneys for the plaintiffs have argued that SB 99 bans “a wide range of medical treatments and procedures when, and only when, they are provided to transgender youth for the purpose of treating gender dysphoria.” In doing so, attorneys say, the law violates myriad constitutional rights, including equal protection under the law, privacy, dignity, parental autonomy and the right to seek health.

“Planned Parenthood of Montana providers and health center staff are mandatory reporters. We hold the health and safety of our patients above all else, and our health centers comply with all laws regarding reporting abuse,” said Mary Sullivan, communications coordinator for Planned Parenthood of Montana. “Baseless claims of violations from the Attorney General do not protect survivors of violence. These statements aren’t about prosecuting crimes but rather serve his political interests in undercutting health care and privacy for Montanans.”

“Transgender men, two-spirit people, non-binary people, gender non-conforming folks, and cisgender women all need abortion care. By using gender-inclusive language, we are not erasing the individual struggles each of these groups have faced. Instead, we acknowledge that these struggles for bodily autonomy and agency over our specific healthcare needs are inexorably linked,” MAAP wrote.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Montana has named a new executive director, tapping senior staff attorney Akilah Maya Deernose to lead the advocacy organization. Deernose is the first Black woman and LGBTQ+ person to lead the ACLU of Montana, the organization said. As senior staff attorney, she’s worked as lead counsel in lawsuits challenging Montana’s 2021 transgender birth certificate law as well as Senate Bill 99, a 2023 law preventing trans youth from accessing gender-affirming care.

Montana’s attorney general and Republican officials from 18 other states are opposing a federal effort to strengthen medical privacy regulations, arguing that states with abortion bans should be able to obtain reproductive health care records for criminal investigations, including when a patient travels to another state.

The new accusations from the Helena-based Montana Pride organizers are part of a lawsuit originally filed in early July in federal court. The plaintiffs in that case, including a transgender author, a public school teacher, local arts organizations, nonprofits, a brewery and a bookstore, argue that the Republican-sponsored House Bill 359 is an unconstitutional violation of free speech rights.

Montana Republicans touted the moves as evidence of their commitment to women and families at a time when they were passing strict abortion limits. Since the legislative session ended in May, Gianforte has signed into law bills limiting abortion access, including a ban on dilation and evacuation procedures after 15 weeks.

There is so much misinformation claiming that providers of gender-affirming care are permanently harming vulnerable children, Coles said. “Denying access to care harms transgender and gender-diverse kids,” she said. “Gender-affirming care is not new. It’s the attacks on care that are new.”

The state of Montana may owe civil rights attorneys upwards of tens of thousands of dollars after a Billings judge on Monday held the state health department in contempt for what he called “flagrant disregard” of court orders in a yearslong case about how transgender people can update the sex on their birth certificates.

The Supreme Court handed down a major decision Thursday in the Haaland v. Brackeen case, affirming the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act by a 7-2 vote.

To be clear, the presentation was not a drag performance or a drag story hour, where people in elaborate costumes typically lip sync, dance or read children’s books. Rather, the event was to be hosted by writer, activist and transgender woman Adria Jawort — wearing her usual clothing and perhaps holding books — and feature discussions about gender and sexuality in a historical context.

A Helena district court judge on Tuesday barred the state from enforcing five new abortion restrictions while litigation over their constitutionality continues.

“If you start with the assertion that there are exactly two sexes, which is the literature of the bill, that’s an inaccurate statement,” Grantham said. The law’s attempt to separate sex from gender and ignore a person’s psychology, she continued, is also problematic and unscientific. “You can legislate whatever you want. You can say that gravity only applies when you’re at sea level, but that doesn’t change the fact that there’s gravity when we walk up a hill.”

A press secretary for the attorney general’s office did not respond to questions Monday about how Attorney General Austin Knudsen plans to enforce the dilation and evacuation ban, House Bill 721.Representatives of Planned Parenthood of Montana, one of the state’s abortion providers impacted by the new law, framed HB 721 as contradictory to the state Constitution and medical best practices in a Tuesday statement. The group filed a motion for a temporary restraining order shortly after 2:00 p.m., asking Helena District Court Judge Mike Menahan to prevent the state and the attorney general’s office from enforcing the law.

“Absent emergency injunctive relief, Montanans will be irreparably harmed by denial of their constitutionally protected right to access pre-viability abortion care and will suffer irreversible health consequences,” the filing said.