On Wednesday, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed into law five bills recently passed by the Montana legislature which regulate abortion procedures or availability. The Daily Montanan reports on the bills that will now become law. Here is its description of each bill:
Senate Bill 154 ... carves out an exception to abortion under the constitutional right to privacy. A legal review note for the bill said it was at odds with the state constitution, which [Senate Judiciary Chairman Sen. Kieth] Regier responded to in a rebuttal saying it was the state’s Supreme Court that decided that abortion was covered under the right to privacy, and not the constitution.
House Bill 303... provides protections for medical practitioners and facilities that object to participation in health care services based on conscience, defined as “ethical, moral, or religious beliefs or principles.”...
House Bill 575 ... bans abortions after 24 weeks with a definition for viability by that stage of development, and it requires medical practitioners to perform and keep record of an ultrasound.
House Bill 625 ... is a resurrection of the ballot issue LR-131 that voters rejected last fall, which would have required doctors save any infant born alive after an abortion later in pregnancy.
House Bill 786 ... has the state create regulations for the “humane disposition” of dead infants and fetuses, and other regulations of maternal complications and deaths tied “directly or indirectly” to abortions.
Five additional abortion-related bills are close to being submitted to the Governor for his signature.
