The complaint, filed in state district court in Missoula by the national American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal, Washington state-based Perkins Coie LLP and the ACLU of Montana, argues the policy “represents vast government overreach and will cause untold harms” if allowed to take effect.

A group of abortion providers on Monday filed a lawsuit aiming to preserve access to the abortion pill mifepristone as anti-abortion opponents aim to ban it in a separate case.

In recent years, the FDA has made mifepristone easier to get, dropping a two-decade-old requirement that women pick up the pill in person. But the FDA has repeatedly concluded that the remaining requirements — including prescriber certification and patient forms — are necessary.

In their lawsuit, the clinics argue that these restrictions “stigmatize and undermine access to medication abortion.”

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.

The lawsuit challenging the rule, which was set to go into effect this month, would require preauthorization for abortion by the state officials, as well as require an in-person exam by a medical doctor – rules that are not required for non-Medicaid patients.

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.

The bill signed on Friday, Senate Bill 99, was just one of a slate of measures focused on gender identity that the Montana legislature has been advancing this month, including one that would define sex in binary terms and one that would bar public school students from changing their pronouns without parental permission.

“What we’ve been seeing over this session is that there is such disdain, such animus, such disgust with queer people, Indigenous people, people that don’t fit in within their vision of what Montana is,” Medrano told The Intercept. “They have such anger and disdain and disgust that they can’t control it,” he said. “And they’re now weaponizing the institutions to exclude us and police us.

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.

Kole Burdick, 20, also of Bozeman, said it’s important to “uplift queer people and show moments of queer joy,” and commended Zephyr and Howell for their work.

“I think they’ve been working really hard to protect our community and keep our community safe, and I really appreciate them for that,” Burdick said.

“Patients and their medical providers should not have to jump through unnecessary, burdensome hoops in order to prove to bureaucrats why they need access to safe abortion care,” said Hillary-Anne Crosby, a community engagement advocate with the group. “We are disappointed that the DPHHS has chosen to pursue this path despite the immense opposition from those enrolled in Medicaid, health care providers, and others, and we will continue to fight for all Montanans’ constitutional right to abortion.”

Flowers said the bill should never have been discussed in the first place while Montana deals with other issues needing to be addressed, like housing, child care, mental health and property taxes.

“These amendments do nothing to improve this bill,” Flowers said. “They do nothing to spare trans Montanans the pain and suffering we heard about in hearings for hours.”

A bill that would codify parts of the federal Indian Child Welfare Act into state law passed the Senate on Friday after a contentious discussion on the floor.

Thirty-eight senators voted in support of the bill in the second reading, and 12 were opposed. In the third reading, which also happened Friday, 33 people voted in support and the same 12 senators remained opposed.

The Legislative Fiscal Division note officially attached to the bill states that it would have no monetary effect on the state. But a later fiscal analysis from the Legislative Fiscal Division states that Senate Bill 458 could put all of Montana’s federal funding at risk due to how it might conflict with federal nondiscrimination law — that includes the Montana University System.

The lawsuit from Planned Parenthood of Montana and its chief medical officer, Samuel Dickman, M.D., says that House Bill 721 taking effect would enact immediate and irreparable harm on people seeking abortions through dilation and evacuation procedures, which are often used in the second trimester for abortions and miscarriages.

The lawsuit says HB721 would create an effective ban on pre-viability abortions, which the plaintiffs argue is a violation of Montanans’ right to privacy under the state constitution. The bill will take effect immediately should it be signed by Gianforte.

“I think it's clear that the intent is to distort what is otherwise a safe and effective procedure that is the standard of care for women seeking abortions,” said Democratic Sen. Jen Gross, of Billings, on Thursday in the Senate. “This bill takes aim at the quality of life of Montana women and by proxy their families, their employers, our communities.”

The Montana state legislature is considering a bill that would redefine sex based on reproductive capacity, in a move that some experts say would gut state-level non-discrimination statutes and effectively define trans, nonbinary and intersex people out of the law. If the bill is enacted into law, advocates worry that the first-of-its-kind legislation could be copied by anti-trans lawmakers in states around the country.

Abortion remains legal in Montana, but every surrounding state - Idaho, Wyoming, North and South Dakota - has moved to ban or severely restrict it since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Montana's constitution guarantees medical privacy, but the handful of abortion clinics operating there do so under political attack. And in the past, there have been acts of violence. Montana Public Radio's Aaron Bolton reports on efforts to protect providers as anti-abortion rhetoric heats up.

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.