In Win for Montanans, Montana Supreme Court Keeps Abortion Restrictions Blocked While Cases Proceed

10.09.24 (PRESS RELEASE) – Today, the Montana Supreme Court upheld a district court’s rulings temporarily blocking a number of abortion restrictions, including a ban on dilation and evacuation (D&E) abortions, the most common method for abortions starting at approximately 15 weeks of pregnancy; an effective ban on direct-to-patient telehealth medication abortions; and restrictions on Medicaid patients’ access to abortions. All of these restrictions have been blocked since May 2023, when a district court judge granted preliminary injunctions after finding the restrictions likely violate Montanans’ constitutional right to abortion. 

Last year, Planned Parenthood of Montana brought two lawsuits to keep these restrictions from taking effect; in its lawsuit against the Medicaid restrictions, it was also joined by Blue Mountain Clinic and All Families Healthcare. A district court issued preliminary injunctions preventing these restrictions from taking effect while the cases proceed. The district court held last year—and today the Montana Supreme Court affirmed—that these restrictions likely violate the Montana Constitution’s protection of the right to abortion and that they would harm Montanans seeking abortions. The restrictions will now remain blocked until the district court issues a final decision in the case.

In its opinion on the D&E ban and effective ban on direct-to-patient medication abortions, the Court noted that the providers had presented evidence that both D&E abortions and direct-to-patient medication abortions are “safe and effective” and that banning these forms of abortion care are likely “unconstitutional infringement[s] on a patient’s right to privacy.” And in its opinion upholding the block on the Medicaid restrictions, the Court reiterated that the restrictions “are not simple funding decisions, they implicate the constitutional rights of Medicaid-eligible Montanans”; as Justice Gustafson noted, “the State may not jeopardize the health and privacy of poor women by excluding medically necessary abortions from a system providing all other medically necessary care for the indigent.”

Joint statement from Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood of Montana, ACLU of Montana, Blue Mountain Clinic, and All Families Healthcare:

“We are relieved that these medically unnecessary restrictions will not be a barrier for Montanans trying to access reproductive health care. We have been fighting back against countless attempts to restrict access in Montana that have only caused confusion for patients. Politicians have no place in exam rooms and we are determined to defend Montanans’ right to privacy – we trust patients to make their own decisions about their own lives.”

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CRR Contact: [email protected] 

PPFA Contact: [email protected]; 212-261-4433

PPMT Contact: Mary Sullivan; [email protected]

ACLU-MT Contact:  Gwen Lankford; [email protected]