Montana Trumper revives debunked claim for ballot initiative

First it was former President and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Then, it was U.S. Senate Candidate Tim Sheehy, Montana’s Republican challenger to incumbent Jon Tester.

Now, it appears that Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte has jumped on the disinformation bandwagon of babies being aborted up to the moment of birth in the Treasure State.

In the battle that has been fought since the United States Supreme Court changed direction in the Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health decision, which sent the subject of abortion back to the individual states, reproductive rights has taken center stage as a topic across the U.S.

The national discussion has also centered on a repeatedly debunked claim that Democrats support abortion up until the moment of birth and even after birth, which would be infanticide, or murder of child, something outlawed in all 50 states.

“They will take the life of a child in the eighth month, the ninth month and even after birth,” Trump said.

The former GOP president has made claims like that on at least several occasions, but the talking point has been picked up and repeated in Montana.

Sheehy said something similar recently at a June 8 Senate debate, according to KFF Health News: “Elective abortions up to and including the moment of birth. Healthy, 9-month-year-old baby killed at the moment of birth. That’s what Jon Tester and the Democrats have voted for.”

KFF Health News’ Matt Volz fact-checked Sheehy on that statement and found it false, according to a joint investigation with PolitiFact.

But Montana’s governor, also up for re-election this year and facing Democratic challenger Ryan Busse, has taken to talk radio to repeat the disinformation.

On July 17 during radio program “Talk Back Missoula,” Gianforte described a constitutional ballot measure that would enshrine reproductive rights and abortion until the point of fetal viability as a measure that would allow abortion through the moment of birth.

“A pro-abortion ballot initiative that would basically put in the Montana Constitution the right to abortion up through and including the moment of birth. It’s a bad idea,” Gianforte said.

Martha Fuller, the chief executive of Planned Parenthood Montana, and one of the groups involved in the constitutional measure through the group, Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights, called the statement “absolutely disinformation.”

“His statement is absolutely false and it’s shameful that they’re lying to Montana,” Fuller said.

Constitutional Initiative 128, which will be on the ballot before Montana voters, reads:

In an interview the next day on the radio program “Montana Talks,” Gianforte doubled down on his statement, calling CI-128 a “deceptively written abortion initiative,” and claimed that Lewis and Clark County District Court Judge Mike Menahan had illegally ordered the Secretary of State to count signatures because the judge “(doesn’t) care what the law is.”

The Montana Supreme Court refused an emergency appeal request to take over the case or overturn Menahan’s order that inactive voters were still qualified to sign a petition to place the issue on November’s ballot.

Gianforte’s office did not respond or give answers to questions about this story from the Daily Montanan.

Fuller says that while abortion is legal in Montana, through a 25-year-old precedent, Armstrong vs. State of Montana, CI-128 would simply codify into the constitution what is already in practice through the ruling. She said with the repeated legislation passed during the previous two sessions, and the increasing politicization of the state Supreme Court, she said it’s important for Montanans to place CI-128 in the Montana Constitution in order to stop politicians from changing abortion or reproductive rights at the state level.

However, Fuller also said that the wording of the initiative was specifically written to emphasize that abortion would be guaranteed only until “fetal viability,” unless there is a medically necessary reason.

“We don’t need to make up things to get interest on voting on this or the ballot,” Fuller said.

More than 80% of abortions in Montana are medication abortions, or abortions that terminate a pregnancy by a combination of drugs. Those abortions happen before the 11th week of pregnancy. From 12 to 16 weeks, the number of abortions, which are surgical, get smaller and smaller.

She said Montana medical providers who perform abortion don’t handle any person beyond the 22nd week, or into the third trimester. And those cases almost always involve a life-threatening emergency for the mother, or a fatal medical condition for the fetus.

“These are medical situations that should not be politicized,” Fuller said. “They are difficult and unthinkable situations where someone’s life is at risk. Thank goodness they are rare, but in those cases, abortion needs to be an option. These are people who have bought baby clothes, prepared a nursery and wanted a pregnancy. Using their pain and stories to support a false narrative is shameful.”

Fuller said she and her organization have heard the same comments and get questions about late-term abortions. But, she said the doctors and medical care providers who work in reproductive health have an ethical and legal obligation to save life, making killing an infant not just unethical but illegal.

“They’re governed by ethical and professional obligations as doctors,” Fuller said, “and they’re humans. What we’re talking about is a crime. And that’s another issue.”

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