Montana ends parental consent requirement for minors getting abortions

Montana state capitol. / Credit: Natalia Bratslavsky/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 15, 2024 / 18:00 pm (CNA).

The Montana Supreme Court invalidated a state law requiring minors to obtain parental consent for abortion on the grounds that the law violated the “fundamental right” to privacy guaranteed in the state constitution.

In a unanimous ruling issued Wednesday, the Montana Supreme Court said the parental consent for abortions law “violates the fundamental right of a minor to control their body and destiny.”

Passed by the Montana Legislature in 2013, the law requiring parental consent for abortion was immediately challenged by Planned Parenthood and remained blocked for over a decade, never actually taking effect.

In the majority opinion, Justice Laurie McKinnon said: “We conclude that minors, like adults, have a fundamental right to privacy, which includes procreative autonomy and making medical decisions affecting his or her bodily integrity and health in partnership with a chosen health care provider free from governmental interest.”

“A minor’s right to dignity, autonomy, and the right to choose are embedded in the liberties found in the Montana Constitution,” McKinnon wrote. “Because a minor’s right to control her reproductive decisions is among the most fundamental of the rights she possesses, and because the state has failed to demonstrate a real and significant relationship between the statutory classification and the ends asserted, we hold that the Consent Act violates the constitution of the state of Montana.”

McKinnon emphasized that the decision was not meant to weigh in on “the moral, medical, and societal implications of abortion.” Rather she asserted that “at the end of the day, those questions are left to the woman who must decide for herself.”

In response to the ruling, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, a Republican, said he was “deeply concerned and disappointed” by the court’s determination that “parents do not have a fundamental right to oversee the medical care of their young daughters.”

“In its ruling, the court has wielded its gavel like a hammer against one of the fundamental rights in our history: the right of parents to consent to the medical care of their minor children,” Gianforte said.

Meanwhile, Lianna Karlin, president of Right to Life of Montana, told CNA she was shocked and saddened by the news of the ruling.

Karlin said that Montana courts, including the Supreme Court, have been a regular adversary of the state’s pro-life movement, blocking many of the pro-life laws passed by the Legislature.

Despite the loss, Karlin said her group remains focused on defeating a broad abortion amendment to the state constitution that is likely to be included on the November ballot. If successful, the amendment would prohibit the state from restricting abortion before viability and after viability if determined to be in the interest of promoting the mother’s life or health.

Montana currently allows abortion through all nine months of pregnancy.