Issues@Hand

AFA initiatives, Christian activism, news briefs

April 2018 – The American Civil Liberties Union of Montana and the New York Center for Reproductive Rights have filed suit against the state of Montana on behalf of a certified nurse practitioner and a certified nurse midwife. Current state law, enacted in 1995, prohibits the two advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) from performing abortions. According to Montana law, only physicians and physician assistants may end the lives of unborn children.

Both APRNs alleged that this particular law (Montana Code Ann. 50-20-109, also called the APRN Restriction) makes finding and traveling to an abortion provider extremely burdensome for Montana women, since the state is so large and sparsely populated. Therefore, the suit petitioned the court to declare the current law unconstitutional, as well as to block its continued enforcement.

Pro-life groups throughout Montana have opposed the lawsuit and its line of reasoning. In a similar challenge in 2017 in Maine, Teresa McCann-Tumidajski, executive director of Maine Right to Life, said “We are against violence inside and outside the womb. We don’t want to open up new avenues of access to abortion.”

christiannews.net, 2/1/18; thenewamerican.com, 2/5/18