What Abortion Ruling Means For Montana
The United States Supreme Court did what many had expected after Politico obtained a leaked copy of a draft opinion regarding Roe vs. Wade, and overturned the landmark ruling Friday, June 24. Here’s what the ruling means for Montana.
In its decision, Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that previous Supreme Court justices had gotten Roe and other abortion cases wrong when it said that there was a right to abortion implied in the constitution, even though the word never appears.
In the decision released Friday, the court struck down those rulings, saying that federal law does not uniformly protect the procedure as a right protected by the constitution, and absent a constitutional amendment, the nation’s controlling document therefore leaves it up to the individual states to regulate. The decision did not outlaw abortions, nor does it prevent states from making the procedure illegally. Essentially, the decision turns back the clock and resets it to the standard of more than a half-century ago.
Montana, like all other states, will fall back and rely on its constitution and state law to dictate how abortion will be controlled.
Every state bordering Montana has passed legislation with trigger bans that will take effect within a month.
In 1999, a decision, known as Mazurek vs. Armstrong authored by Justice James C. Nelson found that Montana’s constitution protected a woman’s right to privacy while making medical decisions. Though Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen has asked the state Supreme Court to reconsider that decision, the high court has so far declined to revisit it, leaving abortion supported by legal precedent.
In 2021, the Montana Legislature, controlled in both Houses by a large majority of Republicans, passed four different laws that put significant restrictions on the procedure in the state. Those measures were supported by Gov. Greg Gianforte. They were quickly challenged in state court where a judge placed a temporary injunction on the measures until the case, which will likely make its way to the state Supreme Court, will be decided.
This means that abortion, as practiced in Montana, will be largely unchanged for the moment. On Friday, Montana Senate President Mark Blasdel, of Kalispell, and House Majority Leader Sue Vinton of Billings released a joint statement praising the Supreme Court decision and calling on the Montana Supreme Court to overturn the 1999 decision.
