With An Eye On The U.S. Supreme Court, Montana Abortion Clinics Prep For Out-Of-State Patient Surge
Author: Maria Silvers, Montana Free Press
This article, written by Maria Silvers, was originally published in the Montana Free Press. It is published here courtesy of the Montana Free Press.
The last eight weeks have been an emotional rollercoaster for Nicole Smith, the executive director of one of Montana’s only independent abortion clinics.
When news broke in early May indicating the U.S. Supreme Court was prepared to roll back federal protections for abortion, Smith felt as if a longstanding prediction was coming true.
“Many of us have been trying to scream at the top of our lungs for years that things are not OK,” the leader of Blue Mountain Clinic in Missoula said during a recent phone interview. Reading the leaked draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito, she said, was “just a huge reawakening for everyone.”
As written, the opinion would overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, the 1973 decision that has kept abortion legal in the United States despite decades of legal challenges from abortion opponents. As it began to circulate, some supporters of abortion access bluntly predicted widespread negative consequences for people who they say would essentially be forced to carry unwanted pregnancies to term. But as she watched the news unfold, Smith said, gloom didn’t have time to settle in.
The publication of the leaked draft happened to coincide with Missoula Gives, an annual fundraising drive for nonprofits in Missoula and Ravalli counties. Smith said Blue Mountain Clinic received the most individual donations of any participating organization, raising more than $60,000 from 350 people in just two days.
The windfall was more than three times what the clinic had hoped to raise, a sum Smith said “far exceeded our expectations.” The money will be used to upgrade security systems, retain and hire staff, and prepare for a possible influx of clients from across the country. Those expansions will buttress what Smith and other Montana abortion providers point to as their primary mission: keeping clinic doors open.
“The number one priority for us now is protecting abortion access in our state,” Smith said. “We are standing united. We are standing strong.”
Montana is one of a handful of non-coastal states that would maintain a constitutional right to abortion if Alito’s draft opinion becomes binding this month, putting pressure on abortion providers and clinics to prepare to care for patients from across the country.
The Montana Supreme Court decided in 1999 that abortion access is protected by the state’s Constitution. The unanimous opinion in Armstrong v. State means that access to abortion, like other medical choices, is considered an exercise of Montanans’ constitutional right to privacy.
The court’s decision has endured through multiple gubernatorial administrations, changes in political leadership in the Legislature, and a number of legal challenges. The most recent package of proposed abortion restrictions passed during the 2021 Legislature is still working its way through the state court system, with Planned Parenthood of Montana and the Montana attorney general’s office expected to remain locked in litigation for several months.
Even with Armstrong in place and restrictive legislation on hold, accessing an abortion in Montana is not always easy. There are just three organizations in the state dedicated to providing abortions at in-person locations — All Families Clinic in Whitefish, Blue Mountain Clinic in Missoula, and Planned Parenthood of Montana, which operates clinics in Great Falls, Helena and Billings. Other private practice doctors and certain clinicians may provide abortions, but often don’t advertise those services to avoid public blowback in a highly politicized environment.
Providers say the state’s patchwork system is still a more robust network than those in some nearby states. Montana’s operational clinics and legal landscape mean providers are expecting to see increased demand for services from out-of-state patients. The anticipated influx of patients, they say, may begin with residents of the states bordering Montana, all of which have “trigger laws” in place that would make abortion illegal if federal protections fall.
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