HELENA, MT – Today the Montana Supreme Court kept several burdensome restrictions on the state’s abortion clinics blocked while the case proceeds. The blocked statute, which was enacted in 2023, and the rules, which were issued by the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services in September 2024, would have imposed onerous, medically unnecessary requirements forcing clinics to close or stop offering abortion care. Montana’s high court agreed that the rules likely violate Montanans’ constitutional right to equal protection.
Montana Supreme Court Justice James Jeremiah Shea, who ruled to keep the laws blocked, wrote in his concurring opinion: “If there is something this Court has been absolutist about over the decades, it is the appropriate protection of our citizens’ constitutional right to privacy and to make decisions that are inherently private without government interference, regardless of our personal feelings or reservations about those decisions. That is a badge of honor I will proudly wear.”
In November 2024, a Montana district court temporarily blocked the restrictions on abortion clinics from taking effect. The state appealed that decision in January 2025. Today’s ruling reaffirms the lower court’s decision, allowing clinics to continue providing abortions free from medically unnecessary restrictions as the case proceeds.
“The court was right to keep these restrictions blocked. There is no medical reason for abortion providers to be singled out and saddled with these extra medically unnecessary requirements. Montana lawmakers are simply trying everything to end abortion access in the state,” said Hillary Schneller, senior counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights. “Laws like this go against what Montanans want. We look forward to striking down these restrictions once and for all to protect Montanans from this insidious government overreach.”
“Once again the Montana Legislature decided to waste taxpayers’ money passing a clearly unconstitutional law targeting our right to reproductive healthcare,” said Akilah Deernose, Executive Director of the ACLU of Montana. “And once again, the Courts barred that law from going into effect. At this point our elected officials should know that Montana’s Constitution clearly guarantees the right to an abortion.”
“Today’s ruling makes me hopeful for Montana, our clinic, and my patients in the Flathead Valley and beyond. We are the only abortion provider in Northwest Montana, and we are surrounded by states that ban abortion. I would have been forced to close All Families Healthcare if these restrictions took effect, leaving my patients to travel hundreds of miles or forgo care altogether,” said plaintiff Helen Weems, nurse practitioner at All Families Healthcare. “Our state lawmakers clearly don’t care about Montanans’ health, or they wouldn’t pass law after law driving health care providers like me to spend our time in court instead of the exam room with our patients. But I vow to keep fighting to protect access to this safe, essential healthcare for all Montanans.”
Abortion access in Montana is already limited, with only three organizations in the state providing abortion care. Montana is also surrounded by states that ban abortion, including Idaho, North Dakota, and South Dakota, leaving those seeking care with even fewer options.
Despite strong state constitutional protections for abortion, Montana lawmakers have continued to pass laws restricting abortion access—including three separate laws that would have effectively banned abortion for Medicaid members, which the Center and ACLU-MT are also challenging. In 2024, Montana voters cemented protections for abortion rights by approving the Right to Abortion Initiative, which enshrined an explicit right to abortion in the state constitution.
This case, All Families Healthcare v. Montana, was filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights and the ACLU of Montana on behalf of All Families Healthcare, Blue Mountain Clinic, and Helen Weems, APRN-FNP.
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MEDIA CONTACTS:
Center for Reproductive Rights: center.press@reprorights.org
ACLU of Montana: Media@aclumontana.org
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