HELENA — A proposed ballot measure that would specifically add abortion rights to the Montana Constitution will go before voters in November, according to Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen’s office.
Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights, the committee backing Constitutional Initiative 128, said in a statement that they received word from Jacobsen’s office just after 6 p.m. Tuesday. A spokesperson for the Secretary of State confirmed to MTN that the initiative had received enough verified voter signatures to qualify for the ballot.
“We’re excited that CI-128 will be on the ballot in November and Montana voters will finally have the opportunity to make their voices heard and protect reproductive rights in November,” said Planned Parenthood Advocates of Montana President and CEO Martha Fuller, a spokesperson for MSRR, in a statement. “We could not have accomplished this incredible feat without the dedication of our volunteers and supporters who want to protect their freedom and constitutional right to make private medical decisions. Montanans are ready to vote YES on CI-128.”
CI-128 would add language to the state constitution, establishing “a right to make and carry out decisions about one’s own pregnancy, including the right to abortion.”
The text of the proposed amendment says the right to abortion “shall not be denied or burdened” except for a compelling government interest that “clearly and convincingly addresses a medically acknowledged, bona fide health risk.” It says the government would be allowed to regulate abortion after fetal viability – when a doctor believes a fetus could likely survive outside the uterus – but not to deny or burden an abortion when needed to protect a patient’s life or health.
Throughout the qualification effort, CI-128 was entangled in a series of legal battles. Attorney General Austin Knudsen initially ruled it legally insufficient, sponsors challenged Knudsen’s proposed ballot language for the measure after the Supreme Court allowed it to move forward, and most recently, the sponsors and Jacobsen’s office went to court over whether signatures from “inactive voters” should be counted.
“We know extreme anti-abortion politicians in Montana will continue to deceive voters in an attempt to take away our rights,” said ACLU of Montana Executive Director Akilah Deernose, another spokesperson for MSRR. “We will continue to fight for the rights of Montanans to participate in their democracy and make their voices heard.”
It takes signatures from at least 60,359 registered voters to qualify a constitutional amendment for the ballot, and at least 604 in 40 of Montana’s 100 state legislative districts. MSRR reported collecting more than 117,000 signatures on its petition and said during the most recent case that more than 81,000 of them were accepted by election officials.
Jacobsen’s office has not yet announced whether other proposed ballot measures have qualified – specifically CI-126 and CI-127, which would overhaul Montana’s election system. The deadline to certify a measure for the November ballot is Thursday.
