Montana becomes an abortion battleground state with advocacy groups spending millions

CNA Staff, Oct 16, 2024 / 16:10 pm

A pro-life group is combating a Montana “Right to Abortion” ballot measure with a $2 million advertisement campaign, saying pro-abortion leaders go “too far,” even as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is set to spend $1.2 million in Montana on the abortion issue. 

Montana’s “Right to Abortion Initiative,” CI-128, would enshrine in the state’s constitution a right to abortion up to viability with exceptions for the health and life of the mother. 

Montana is one of 10 states with abortion on the ballot. Abortion is currently legal in Montana until the baby is viable outside of the womb.

If passed, the initiative would amend the state constitution “to expressly provide a right to make and carry out decisions about one’s own pregnancy, including the right to abortion,” the measure reads.

The pro-life organization Women Speak Out PAC, a partner of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, is combating the abortion mandate and advocating against Democratic Sen. Jon Tester. The incumbent senator has been vocal about his support of abortion and is up for reelection this year.

The series of advertisements highlights the importance of laws protecting minors by requiring parental permission for abortion as well as the importance of providing resources for moms in need. The advertisements are also critical of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, for her pro-abortion stance. 

One ad highlights Tester’s support for removing parental consent requirements for minors seeking abortions as well as his support of taxpayer-funded and late-term abortions. 

SBA Pro-Life America’s president, Marjorie Dannenfelser, said Montana pro-abortion leaders “are drastically out of touch with the people they claim to support.”

“That’s why, in Montana and key battleground states across the nation, we are hard at work to reach 10 million voters … to expose the truth of the Democrats’ pro-abortion extremism and educate Americans about the lives at stake in this election,” Dannenfelser said in an Oct. 11 statement.

The ad campaign is just one of many pro-life campaigns by the group. SBA Pro-Life America plans to spend $92 million across America to protect life, reaching out to voters in eight battleground states including Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. 

But other Montana groups are campaigning on the abortion issue as well.

The ACLU and ACLU of Montana announced last month that they are set to spend $1.3 million on a campaign — the most the ACLU has ever spent on a Montana campaign — to educate voters on candidates’ positions on abortion and other matters. Akilah Deernose, executive director of ACLU of Montana, noted in a statement that “every person deserves the autonomy to make personal medical decisions during pregnancy, free from government interference.” 

The ACLU announced it is spending more than $25 million nationwide during the electoral cycle, with a focus on “protecting and expanding abortion” and voting rights, according to a June press release.

The Montana Catholic bishops condemned the ballot initiative earlier this year, saying the bill “seeks to enshrine … late-term abortion of babies who will feel pain, abortion of babies who have been partially delivered, [and] abortion by dismemberment of children growing in the womb.”

In August, the Montana Supreme Court unanimously overturned a 2013 law protecting minors by requiring parental permission for abortions, citing a 1999 Montana Supreme Court ruling that used the “right to privacy” as justification for pre-viability abortions. 

While Montana is a red state, the state has a history of splitting the vote. In 2022, Montanans rejected the Born Alive Infant Protection Act ballot initiative, which would have protected babies who are born alive after attempted abortions, but elected a pro-life candidate, Rep. Ryan Zinke, to its 1st Congressional District seat.