The American Civil Liberties Union of Montana called the bills “the worst kind of government overreach”.
Now laws, Greg Gianforte is calling them the best kind of victory… for life.
The Republican Governor of Montana took to Twitter to mark the occasion –
Three pro-life bills were signed into law Monday, and the Governor was quick to laud the tireless work of three women who saw the bill through the Montana legislature.
Lola Sheldon-Galloway remarked, “We have waited 48 years to see our governor in Montana sign this bill.” Sheldon-Galloway sponsored the measure to ban abortions after 20 weeks gestation. Amy Regier and Sharon Greef were the other Republican representatives active in getting the other pro-life measures passed; laws which will require health professionals to offer pregnant women an opportunity to view an ultrasound prior to having an abortion, and require abortion-inducing drugs to be administered in person rather than through telemedicine.
On his Facebook page, Gianforte thanked the three women and championed the laws as “a promising day… a day that will go down in our state’s history as we defend life.”
In January, ACLU of Montana executive director Caitlin Borgmann decried government overreach and that the bills represented a step toward a long-term goal to make abortion completely unavailable in the state. She lamented, “(it places) the government between patients and the medical care they deserve. Republicans have plowed ahead despite clear warning that the bills are unconstitutional and will be challenged in court.”
All of this comes on the heels of a different story being sculpted at the federal level.
In March, President Joe Biden drew harsh criticism from the GOP on his selection for head of the Department of Health and Human Services. Xavier Becerra, as California attorney general, defended some of the nation’s most liberal laws and policies on abortion rights. Two weeks ago, the Biden administration began the methodical dismantling of pro-life laws implemented during the Trump presidency, which included a ban on clinics referring women for abortions. Critics slammed the Trump policy as “anti-woman” as it complicated the process of acquiring birth control and essentially drove Planned Parenthood from the federal family planning program.
Yet, pro-life laws appear to be trending across the States. According to the nonpartisan Guttmacher Institute, 21 state legislatures have introduced almost 70 major bills this year alone to ban most or all abortions.