Abortion restrictions spark conflict, hours of testimony in committee hearings
Despite the overturning of federal abortion protections last year, abortion remains legal in Montana because of the state constitution’s right to privacy and an affirming Montana Supreme Court decision. Three Republican bills passed in 2021, which added restrictions to medication abortions, required the offering of an ultrasound and prohibited abortions after 20 weeks, have been enjoined in an ongoing court case in Yellowstone County.
Republicans and anti-abortion advocates have continued to advance bills this session to limit abortion outright or tightly regulate specific procedures, often in the name of protecting women and unborn children.
“The Legislature is not prohibited from enacting legislation aimed at protecting the interest in unborn babies’ lives,” said Montana Family Foundation President Jeff Laszsloffy Tuesday during testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in support of HB 721.
Democrats, medical organizations and abortion clinic operators have pushed back on the proposed bills as unconstitutional and an infringement on personal medical choices. Opponents on Tuesday also criticized the premise and language of the bills, accusing proponents of sowing fear and increasing stigma.
“It isn’t OK that we have had to listen to supporters use inflammatory rhetoric designed to arouse anti-abortion sentiments,” said Stephanie McDowell, director of the Bozeman reproductive health clinic Bridgercare, in testimony to Senate lawmakers. “… Medical decision-making should be based on medical best practices, not criminalization, inflammatory rhetoric, or ideology.”
Out of all the pending legislation, HB 721, sponsored by House Speaker Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, would directly impact a larger number of Montanans, given that roughly 11% of abortions nationwide occur after the first trimester of pregnancy. Of those, about 95% are conducted using D&E procedures — when a person’s cervix is dilated and the uterus is emptied with suction and possibly surgical instruments.
The bill’s language specifically bans “dismemberment abortion,” a broadly defined, nonmedical term that has been the basis for similar prohibitions on D&E procedures in other states.
A legal note drafted by legislative staff states that HB 721 appears to prohibit all such procedures at any stage of pregnancy and could trigger a constitutional conflict by infringing on the right to seek a pre-viability abortion. Regier said that analysis was “false” in his Tuesday comments to lawmakers, stating that the bill still allows for other abortion procedures, such as medication or cesarean section, in the second trimester.
Democratic members of the Senate committee, Sen. Jen Gross, D-Billings, and Sen. Andrea Olsen, D-Missoula, repeatedly protested opponents’ language during Tuesday’s hearing, including the use of “abortionist” to refer to abortion providers and graphic characterizations of D&E procedures. The chair of the committee, Sen. Keith Regier, R-Kalispell, rebuked Democrats’ interruptions and maintained that proponents were stating their own opinions on the topic.
Eventually, after Sen. Daniel Emrich, R-Great Falls, referenced satanism while posing a question about differing religious views on abortion, Gross and another lawmaker, Sen. Susan Webber, D-Browning, left the room.
“We have gone beyond opinion. We are now in a decorum issue. We are, as a committee, continuing to bully, shame and inflame this debate,” Olsen said as her colleagues exited the hearing. “And that is just not acceptable for me as a member of this committee.”
Senate Minority Leader Pat Flowers, D-Belgrade, subsequently requested a meeting with Regier and other members of the committee to discuss decorum issues, which members of the media were allowed to attend. No resolution was reached.