The Montana Right to Abortion Initiative was filed in November 2023. This measure would insert an extreme right to abortion into the state constitution. The proposed amendment was introduced by Samuel Dickman, abortion provider and officer of Planned Parenthood of Montana. On January 16, 2024, the Attorney General Austin Knudsen declared the initiative to be legally insufficient and outlined how the proposed Ballot Measure #14 violated Montana’s constitution by logrolling multiple choices into one initiative and precluding Montanans from passing future regulations on abortion.
The decision by AG Knudsen was appealed and on April 6, the Montana Supreme Court ruled against the AG and rewrote the language describing the abortion amendment for voters. The Court ordered that a legislative review was not required, thus allowing the abortion initiative to proceed. Although abortion is already legal in Montana, this measure—Constitutional Initiative-128 or CI-128—is possibly the most extreme of all the abortion amendment proposals that various states are facing.
Once the Montana Supreme Court decision was issued, signature collection began. Abortion proponents met the required threshold to have the initiative placed on the November ballot. A lawsuit was filed to throw out the signatures of inactive voters, but a district court judge issued a preliminary injunction, ordering the signatures to be counted.
The bishops of Montana have issued a video and letter pointing out the extreme nature of this proposed amendment, how it will insert into the constitution a right to late-term abortions, eliminate parental notification, and exploit underaged mothers, among other problems. Citizens are asked to educate themselves and others, to pray, and to take action to oppose CI-128. For more facts on CI-128, go to Montana Bishops Call to Defend Life on the website of the Montana Catholic Conference.
