Jennifer Nuelle
The Montana Supreme Court ruled against a law on Wednesday that requires parental consent for minors to obtain an abortion.
The ruling sides with Planned Parenthood, which challenged a 2013 statute called the “Parental Consent for Abortion Act of 2013,” according to the court ruling. Justice Laurie McKinnon (pictured above), who delivered the court’s opinion, wrote in the ruling that the “classification created by the Legislature” violated a minor’s right “to control her body.”
“A minor’s right to control her reproductive decisions is among the most fundamental of the rights she possesses, and because the State has failed to demonstrate a real and significant relationship between the statutory classification and the ends asserted, we hold that the Consent Act violates the Constitution of the State of Montana,” the ruling states.
The office of Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, who appealed a district court’s ruling in the case in 2023, said the decision Wednesday went against the will of the people of Montana.
“Wednesday’s decision further proves how radical and out-of-touch the Montana Supreme Court is with their constituents,” Chase Scheuer, press secretary for Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Rather than do what’s right to protect the health and well-being of babies and children, the justices sided with their campaign donors – Planned Parenthood.”
The Consent Act was set to take effect on July 1, 2013, but a complaint from Planned Parenthood put it on hold, Reuters reported.
“It is ludicrous to believe that a child’s parents should not be informed before a major medical procedure and Montanans agree,” Scheuer told the DCNF. “In 2012, 70 percent of Montanans supported a parental notice act, which was also challenged by Planned Parenthood and is going to trial. The people’s elected representatives in the Legislature also passed the parental consent act to protect parents’ right to have a say in their child’s well-being. After 11 years of litigation, the Supreme Court took that right away from parents across the state. What will the court decide next, that parents don’t need to consent to their child’s underage marriage?”
Planned Parenthood argued that the Consent Act violates the “equal protection” and “right of privacy” clauses in the Montana constitution, the court ruling states. The state argued that the Consent Act protects minors from “sexual victimization by adult men” and from “rash or poorly reasoned decisions that often result from a minor’s underdeveloped decision-making capacity.”
The state also presented the argument that parents have the right to “direct their child’s care,” noting that the Consent Act “respects a minor’s right of privacy and access to abortion,” according to the ruling.
Justice Jim Rice, who agreed with the “ultimate holdings” of the case, wrote in a separate opinion that the court failed to consider the matter in a timely manner.
“Justice Rice was right about one thing in his concurrence: the public deserves better than what occurred in this case, and courts must do better,” Scheuer told the DCNF. “Attorney General Knudsen will continue to protect the health and well-being of young women in Montana. We are reviewing our possible next steps.”
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Jennifer Nuelle is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Background Photo “Courtroom” by Christian Wasserfallen.
