Know Your Rights: Access To Care Initiative

Reproductive and birthing spaces should be places of safety, dignity, and belonging; where every person is seen, respected, and cared for by their providers. Yet too often, these spaces replicate the inequities of our larger systems of oppression, leaving Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color without the care they deserve. In fact, maternal health in the United States is failing just about everybody, as we continue to have the highest rates for maternal death of any high-income nation. Even more shocking, over 80% of these deaths were likely preventable.

Across Montana and beyond, we are called to reimagine what care can look like when it is rooted in justice, community, and compassion and when individuals are empowered with the information to make informed decisions, by knowing their rights.

We believe there is something better for Montanans on the horizon: a future where everyone can access the care they deserve without fear, pressure, or discrimination. This project seeks to get the necessary information into people's hands about their rights which they can use to make informed decisions that are best for them and their care. Together, we can build it.

Listening First: We’re holding conversations with people in their reproductive years, and with those who support them, to hear what’s really happening in Montana’s health care system. To learn when and how you can get involved, join our email list or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and BlueSky.

Creating Tools Together: From what we learn, we’ll build a Know Your Rights resource that reflects the cultural practices and language used by our communities and addresses the specific barriers to care that individuals and communities are facing.

For example, do pregnant Montanans know that, in Montana, they are allowed to have a birth attendant? That they can decline a c-section unless it’s deemed medically necessary? That they have a right to move around during labor? When people giving birth in Montana know their rights, they will be equipped to better advocate for themselves and will feel more secure that the healthcare they’re receiving meets their needs.

Too many Montanans face systemic barriers to healthcare that makes them feel unheard, unwelcomed, and unsafe, all of which contribute to poor patient outcomes. That’s why we need tools to empower people with the knowledge and expertise to advocate for their own health and the health of their families, friends, and community members.

Empowering Change: Our long-term goal is to make Montana’s reproductive care spaces safer, more equitable, and more respectful for everyone. This project will illuminate the specific barriers that exist in healthcare spaces. With that knowledge, we will equip people with the information around laws and the rights they have so they are empowered in making their own decisions around health care, and feel comfortable and confident advocating for better, more supportive care leading to better health outcomes.

In addition to developing a Know Your Rights campaign to share with the wider community, we will use this information to inform our advocacy work, so that we can make community-informed policy decisions.

Black and Indigenous people die at much higher rates during pregnancy and birth than their white counterparts, indicating a crucial need for better resources and support. The culturally-relevant Know Your Rights resources that this project will create and distribute will be mindful of those disparities.

That said, these Know Your Rights resources are a single piece of a larger healthcare puzzle: Families deserve access to midwives, doulas, and culturally informed care, but too often, those options are out of reach due to financial barriers and limitations on the types of care covered by insurance. In many parts of Montana, lack of a nearby clinic makes it even more time consuming and expensive for people to access the care they need.

For more information on how the ACLU of Montana is addressing other pieces of the healthcare puzzle, visit our issue area pages on Reproductive Freedom and 2S-LGBTQIA+ Rights.

We’re preparing to launch the Access to Care Initiative and want to bring this work to your community. In the meantime, sign up for the ACLU of Montana email list to stay involved and we will let you know when there are opportunities for public participation.

Support the Work: Donate or volunteer with ACLU of Montana to stand for reproductive freedom.