Montana organizers collect enough signatures to advance abortion rights ballot measure
A proposed amendment to enshrine abortion access in Montana’s constitution is one step closer to appearing on the November 2024 ballot, after organizers submitted the required number of valid signatures on Friday.
A committee called Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights, led by Planned Parenthood Advocates of Montana, announced it had collected about 117,000 signatures of registered voters — far more than the approximately 60,300 it needed to move forward with their ballot proposal. The group had faced a Friday deadline.
The group said it had also fulfilled a requirement under state law that the signature total include at least 10% of registered voters in 40 of Montana’s 100 state House districts — a threshold that had been viewed as a particularly difficult hurdle for abortion rights groups in the red state.
At a virtual press conference, ACLU of Montana Executive Director Akilah Deernose said the groups collected more signatures "than any single ballot initiative in Montana state history," including signatures from every Montana county.
The measure, called CI-128, would amend the Montana constitution to clearly provide a right to “make and carry out decisions about one’s own pregnancy, including the right to abortion.”
It would also “prohibit the government from denying or burdening the right to abortion before fetal viability” — about the 24th week of pregnancy — and “prohibit the government from denying or burdening access to an abortion when a treating healthcare professional determines it is medically indicated to protect the pregnant patient’s life or health.”
State- and county-level officials now have until July 19 to verify the signatures. When they complete that process, the petitions are then sent to the secretary of state to certify the measure for the November ballot. The secretary of state's office has until August 22 to certify the measure for the ballot.
Abortion is currently legal in Montana until viability. A ban on a common abortion procedure — called a dilation and evacuation — after 15 weeks of pregnancy that Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte signed into law last year remains blocked by the courts.
Enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution would make it more difficult for lawmakers to undo current protections in the future.
Montana is one of 11 states where organizers are seeking to enshrine abortion rights in state constitutions through citizen-led ballot initiatives. The measures are officially on the ballot in Colorado, Maryland, Florida, South Dakota and New York. In New York, a judge blocked a proposed amendment’s placement on the November ballot last month, but the move was appealed and on Thursday, a judge ruled to put the measure back on the November ballot.
Montana abortion rights groups had faced a litany of legal and logistical challenges in their quest to begin gathering signatures. In January, Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, a Republican, whose review and approval had been required for the process to continue, rejected the proposed language, prompting organizers to file a suit challenging that decision.
The case reached the state Supreme Court, which ruled in March to overturn Knudsen’s decision, allowing the process to move forward.
Further legal challenges, however, could still arise. Republican state lawmakers have held repeated symbolic votes opposing the measure, criticizing it for being too broad.
An abortion rights ballot measure could help boost Democratic turnout in the state's high-profile Senate election by tapping into the enthusiasm around the issue.
While Montana is a solidly red state in presidential races, Democratic Sen. Jon Tester’s re-election race against Republican Tim Sheehy is expected to be among the most competitive on the country this year.
National anti-abortion groups have in recent months sent resources to efforts in the state to defeat the proposed ballot measure. In April, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America said it would be sending dozens of canvassers to Montana.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
