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.”

A new study found that maternal mortality in the U.S. more than doubled between 1999 and 2019, and in that 20-year span, Native American populations saw the largest increase in maternal mortality when compared to any other racial or ethnic group.

The new law, passed by Bozeman Democratic Rep. Alice Buckley, increases eligibility for the Best Beginnings child care scholarship to up to 185% of the federal poverty level, which is expected to up participation in the program by 25%. The income threshold is now $36,482 for a single parent with one child and $55,500 for a family of four.

We must prioritize taking care of one another. Across age, race, gender, class, geography, and party affiliation, we are entitled to control our own bodies. Let’s focus on the shared values that connect us and work together to ensure that Montana never has to mark an anniversary of a year without abortion.

Zephyr and Reed, both 34, have emerged as a vanguard, a couple spreading hope to fellow transgender people amid a year in which hundreds of bills were proposed or passed that restrict their rights in health care and other realms. Their appearances at Pride events this month throughout the country replicate scenes like the one in Missoula.

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.

“What is happening in Helena is not indicative of what people feel like around the state. People value abortion, the privacy of their healthcare decisions,” Sullivan said. “They don’t want lawmakers in the examine room, and we’ll fight to keep it legal. People should know they shouldn’t be afraid or stigmatized. It’s OK to want and need an abortion. It’s a popular thing, and you have support.

Here in Montana with the 2023 legislative session having ended in early May, we saw attacks on the right to abortion and bodily autonomy, with record numbers of bills having been brought forward by legislators. However, Montanans can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that the right to abortion remains legal and safe.

President Joe Biden pledged Friday to hold the line against attempts to restrict reproductive rights and abortion access during a campaign rally with the country’s leading abortion rights organizations.

On the eve of the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs that put abortion protections back in the hands of states, more than 100 Montana medical professionals signed a letter calling on Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte and lawmakers to get their hands out of reproductive health care decisions.

“Montana medical professionals call on our state lawmakers and Governor Gianforte to stop their attacks on our patients’ reproductive health and bodily autonomy. Decisions around abortion should be left to women and their trained doctors – not politicians,” the 106 medical professionals wrote in a letter put forward by the Committee to Protect Health Care.

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Suzan DelBene, a U.S. House member from Washington, said during the 2024 campaigns “the threat to abortion rights nationwide will be clearer than ever.”

“The federal government and states alike are constantly attacking people’s treaties, our rights to abolishing reservations, and our rights as Native people,” Chairman Stiffarm said. “They’re gonna continue to attack anything, everything towards tribes.”

“It just really feels like we’re living in a state that doesn’t want us, is telling us we don’t belong, and we don’t matter,” Leighton says. “When our government or systems fail, what it really comes down to is community taking care of community.”

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.

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.

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.

On the first day of Pride month, Adria Jawort was scheduled to speak at the public library in Butte, Montana. She was going to give a lecture on the history of trans and Two Spirit people in the west. She is not a drag performer. And yet the city’s top elected officials pressured the library to cancel her talk, saying it might pose a legal risk given the state’s new law against drag performers reading to children.

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.

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.