Elinor Smith is a reporter with the UM Legislative News Service. This is one of her reports:
HELENA – Lawmakers heard testimony this week for the second time on three bills that would limit access to abortion in three main ways: by limiting Medicaid payments for abortions, by criminalizing abortion except in the case of medical necessity and by excluding abortion from Montanans’ right to privacy.
House Bill 544 is sponsored by Rep. Jane Gillette, R-Bozeman, and it would prohibit the state Medicaid program from paying for an abortion unless the procedure is medically necessary or the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.
The bill passed the House in mid-March on a 66-32 vote and the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Safety Committee heard testimony on the bill on Friday.
House Bill 575, sponsored by Rep. Lola Sheldon-Galloway, R-Great Falls, would make aborting a viable fetus, or a fetus that could survive outside of the womb, a felony. There is no exception for rape or incest listed in the bill. HB 575 passed the House of Representatives March on a vote of 68-31. The Senate Judiciary Committee has not yet voted on the bill.
Sen. Keith Regier, R-Kalispell, is the sponsor of Senate Bill 154, which would exclude abortion from Montanans’ constitutional right to privacy. Regier’s argument hangs on the word “individual.” He said at a hearing Friday that since an abortion affects not only the mother’s body but the fetus as well, it is not an individual act and therefore should not be included in Montanans’ right to privacy.
“A right to privacy should not apply to an abortion anymore than a right to privacy applying to child abuse or abusing a spouse. Those acts include another person and are not acts of individual privacy,” Regier said.
Opponents of the bill said that it’s unconstitutional and pointless because the right to an abortion is already included in the constitutional right to privacy under the 1999 Montana Supreme Court case Armstrong v. State.
Anne Angus had an abortion and spoke out as an opponent of the bill in the House Judiciary committee Friday.
“Every other aspect of my healthcare is protected by privacy rights. Every other decision I make with my provider is protected by privacy rights. There is no basis for abortion being any different here other than you’ve decided that you want it to be different,” Angus said.
The bill passed the Senate in January on a vote of 28-21 and the House Judiciary Committee heard testimony on it on Friday but has not yet voted on the bill.
