Judge Christopher Abbott wrote in his ruling that the case is far from over, but that the state has no compelling interest to require licenses from abortion providers when the state cannot yet issue any. He wrote the court must maintain the status quo while the constitutionality of law is hashed out.

More than 6,000 people, and several hundred dogs, congregated on either side of Last Chance Gulch in downtown Helena Saturday morning to cheer on the Pride parade.

Including Helena, there have been 12 Pride celebrations across Montana this summer, the most ever held in the state, says Kevin Hamm, the lead coordinator for Montana Pride. And these celebrations come after a legislative session that saw a series of bills targeting the LGBTQ+ community.

A public lecture on the history of Montana’s trans and Two-Spirit community that was canceled by local officials in Butte has been rescheduled and relocated.

Jawort said the point of the post was to show how the law’s broad provisions are not limited strictly to drag shows, but could limit the ability of trans people to speak in public spaces.

“Unfortunately, it means that a lot of kids are going to struggle with food insecurity this summer when DPHHS could’ve done something to alleviate that,” Semmens said.

A Helena judge has blocked four anti-abortion bills and a health department rule restricting Medicaid coverage of abortion while lawsuits challenging their constitutionality play out.

A state judge has temporarily blocked new restrictive abortion policies from going into effect while their constitutionality can be hashed out in court. That order came after a 4-hour hearing in which both sides made their cases for or against the block.

The Montana providers joined others in Kansas and Virginia in a lawsuit against the federal Food and Drug Administration hoping to ensure access in their states to mifepristone, one of the drugs in a two-step regime to complete medication abortions.

Senate Bill 458 would eliminate legal recognition of transgender, nonbinary and intersex Montanans across 40 sections of state code. For example, it would bar them from being able to choose the gender marker on their birth certificate or driver's license.

Montana’s three abortion providers are suing the state over a new rule that restricts Medicaid coverage of abortion.

The state health department rule is set to take effect Monday and providers are asking Lewis and Clark District Court to temporarily block the rule before access to abortion is restricted.

Opponents of the bill have criticized how it conflates members of the LGBTQ+ community with sexual predators, implying every drag performance is inherently sexual in nature.

The package of anti-abortion bills includes House Bill 625that would create a felony offense for providers who fail care for infants born after an abortion. The protection exists in federal law and infanticide is a crime.

What this bill would do is codify the existing abortion landscape in Montana, which at the top level is the right to access an abortion under a 1999 state Supreme Court ruling called Armstrong. And that found that Montana's state Constitution has the right to privacy and that Constitution protects access to an abortion.

Rep. Alice Buckley, a Democrat from Bozeman, is carrying House Bill 302 that would in some cases quadruple the maximum number of months of birth control supply a patient could pick up at one time – whether that be a pill, patch or ring.