The Montana Department of Justice and attorneys for the state have filed notices of appeal with the state Supreme Court after a judge in Helena blocked several newly signed bills restricting abortion access and a state health department rule on Medicaid-funded abortions.

“Even before the Armstrong decision in Montana, our courts said that you can’t discriminate against people because they’re lower-income and deny them access to health care – and that includes abortion care,” Graybill said.

A Montana trial judge has blocked two new state laws that allegedly eliminate access to abortion for Medicaid patients and others who depend on state money to pay for their care.

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.

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

A state District Court judge on Tuesday put the brakes on several new abortion restrictions in Montana, including laws to tighten requirements for medically necessary abortions covered by Medicaid, require ultrasounds and ban the most commonly used procedure to terminate pregnancies in the second trimester.

Clinics and groups suing to stop the new laws include the American Civil Liberties Union of Montana, Planned Parenthood of Montana and the Center for Reproductive Rights. They argue that these new laws will limit a woman’s options so severely that it essentially makes it impossible to obtain an abortion. It also says that the laws discriminate against those on Medicaid.

In the 2023 legislative session, Republicans introduced 13 bills attempting to limit abortion access, a substantial uptick from the seven anti-abortion bills brought by legislators in 2021, four in 2019, and two in 2017, 2015 and 2013.

A February 2023 poll showed that 75% of Montanans oppose changes to our constitutional right to privacy, a right that affirms our ability to make personal healthcare decisions about when or whether to have children. Yet our Montana Sexual & Reproductive Health Collective members continue to track 11 anti-abortion bills still under consideration — including two potential constitutional amendments.

“It really feels like they are attacking abortion care for lower income folks and folks who may rely on public assistance or Medicaid funding. And so, I think looking at low income folks and then folks who have just systemically and institutionally run into barriers to healthcare, so, you know, communities of color, LGBTQ people, transgender people, I think are those who are going to potentially run into continued barriers,” Leighton said.

They also said it’s likely that some of the bills will end up in Montana’s courts.

“The sad reality is that they're -- they're passing these knowing that it will be a waste of taxpayer time and money because they will be litigated later. Knowing, knowing that they're unconstitutional,” Leighton said.

HB 862 would block using state funding for abortion except in cases of rape, incest and when the woman’s life is in danger. It would bring Montana’s laws in line with the longstanding federal policy called the Hyde Amendment.

Montana has had a different standard. Since a 1995 court ruling, the state has used its own general funds to cover abortions that have been determined to be “medically necessary,” even if the mother’s life isn’t endangered.

“Forcing someone to give birth against their will is unconscionable, and Montanans will not stand for this government intrusion into our private lives and our personal decisions,” said Aileen Gleizer, with Missoula’s Blue Mountain Clinic. “If you pass this law, you’ll be responsible for harming low-income Montana families and burdening Montanans with costs of paying for forced child bearing.”