Center for Reproductive Rights Statement on Montana Voters’ Approval of Anti-Choice Ballot Measure

(PRESS RELEASE) In a blow to the fundamental right to access to reproductive health care, Montana voters have approved a ballot initiative that
will now force young women who, for any number of serious reasons, cannot involve their parents in their reproductive decisions, to go to court before
being permitted to exercise their constitutionally protected right to seek an abortion. 

 

“This new law is not only clearly unconstitutional under Montana’s state constitution, it will no doubt put the state’s most vulnerable young
women—who are already faced with difficult or even dangerous circumstances—at even greater risk,” said Nancy Northup, president and CEO at the Center
for Reproductive Rights. “These young women would be better served by efforts to provide increased access to health care and by education about how to
avoid unintended pregnancies, not by bigger roadblocks in the way of their critical health care.”

 

Last night, the Center for Reproductive Rights also issued statements on the re-election of President Barack Obama and a defeated anti-choice state ballot initiative in Florida.