Martha Fuller

The four states bordering Montana have “trigger laws” in effect or pending now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ended federal protections for abortion, making conservative Big Sky Country an unlikely haven for women seeking to end their pregnancies. But Montana’s potential to become an abortion refuge has been diminished by the operator of three of the state’s five clinics, which are preemptively limiting who can receive abortion pills.

Planned Parenthood of Montana has stopped offering medication abortion services to out-of-state residents, according to a statement released this week.

The leak of a draft U.S. Supreme Court opinion which calls for overturning federal protections for abortion drew swift reaction. Here's how such a decision could play out in Montana and what elected leaders are saying about it.

In states where courts have ruled that their constitutions’ explicit privacy rights extend to the right of a woman to have an abortion, the procedure would continue to be legal even if the Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling is overturned, legal scholars and abortion-rights advocates said.

A decades-old lawsuit challenging two Montana laws requiring parental consent and notification for minors seeking abortions will head back to court Monday.