Montana Republicans recently attempted to criminalize the act of traveling out-of-state for an abortion despite an overwhelming vote by Montana residents to protect abortion rights just last year.
In November 2024, Montana voters signaled alignment with much of the country when they approved a constitutional amendment that would protect abortion access up until fetal viability with 57.76% of the vote.
Nonetheless, Republicans in the state legislature proposed legislation which would criminalize women who travel out of state for an abortion.
This concept has gained traction in several red states, including Idaho and Tennessee which have laws that penalize adults who transport minors across state lines for reproductive healthcare. In 2023, four Texas counties with major interstate routes passed abortion travel bans, which rely on citizen reporting for enforcement.
Thanks to the constitutional amendment which passed last year, abortion is legal in Montana until typically around 24 weeks. Exceptions after viability are limited to two instances: to save the pregnant person’s life or to prevent serious risk to the pregnant person’s physical health.
Montana’s proposed bill goes even farther than Idaho and Tennessee, in that it criminalizes adult women who travel out of state to receive an abortion after Montana’s law allows.
Opponents of the bill argue that the exceptions in Montana’s current law are too narrow and don’t account for women who discover severe fetal abnormalities after viability. Under the bill, women found guilty of violating this law could be fined up to $1,000 and sentenced to up to 5 years in prison.
Since Roe v. Wade fell, abortion has been banned or severely limited in many states. Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia have banned abortion in almost all circumstances. Florida, Georgia, Iowa and South Carolina ban abortion after 6 weeks, which is before most women know they are pregnant. Nebraska and North Carolina have a ban after 12 weeks, and Utah has a ban after 18 weeks.
In Connecticut, not only is abortion access safeguarded, but in 2022 Democrats passed legislation that keeps those seeking and providing abortions safe from these types of overreaching laws in anti-choice states. Just this month, Democrats approved an immediate grant of $800,000 for Planned Parenthood in order to stock up on mifepristone, an abortion drug that is facing threat under the Trump administration.
With Roe overturned, state legislatures are now either the first line of defense or a direct attack on abortion access. Abortion ballot measures have seen overwhelming success across the country, and according to the Pew Research Center, 63% of Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases. With a Republican trifecta in Washington, the future of national abortion access remains unclear, but Connecticut legislators are committed to protecting reproductive rights.
The travel ban proposal will not be moving forward in the Montana State Legislature at this time.
