Delegates to Montana’s 1972 Constitutional Convention, and several progressive legal organizations have filed briefs in support of a lawsuit challenging new state laws restricting access to abortion.
In their amicus brief, three delegates and a researcher at the Constitutional Convention wrote that the new laws violate the intent of the Montana Constitution’s right to privacy and that it should be “protected in the widest possible manner, subject to court review — not legislative whim.”
They were responding to Attorney General Austin Knudsen’s request to the state Supreme Court to overturn a two-decade old precedent that has protected access to abortion under the right to privacy.
The National Women’s Law Center, ACLU and Center for Reproductive Rights have also filed briefs in support of Planned Parenthood’s suit against the new laws.
A final ruling has not yet been issued, but three anti-abortion laws have been temporarily blocked as the case proceeds.