Access to reproductive choice hanging in the balance

I am writing in response to Gov. Gianforte’s attack on the right to privacy of Montana’s Constitution. In a recently filed Supreme Court brief, he requested “... The Court will need to re-assess, without Roe, the limits of its authority to interpret a constitutional right to include that which was expressly intended and believed to be excluded from the Bill of Rights, and instead reserved to the Legislature.”

The recent attacks on abortion care have brought into sharp focus just how precarious reproductive freedom is today. The extreme and draconian restrictions that are proliferating in our state and others, including proposed six-week bans, waiting periods, informed consent requirements, bans on public funding, and unnecessary clinic regulations, are designed to make abortion and reproductive care inaccessible, especially for women living in under-resourced communities, Native American and women of color.

At the same time, with state of the art hospitals, the U.S. still has the highest maternal death rates among developed countries. When women lack access to a complete range of affordable health services, the maternal and infant death rates rise. An abortion is the last choice a woman has when faced with unwanted pregnancy.

I am a supporter of the rights of Montana women, to chose how and when they reproduce and am in opposition to the horrific abortion bans across the country. The fact is that 58% of women of reproductive age live in a state hostile to abortion rights and 24% of women in the U.S. will have an abortion by age 45.

The vast majority of Americans support a woman’s right to safely and privately choose. Without access to safe and affordable reproductive healthcare women will be thrown back into the dark days of illegal and unsafe abortions that could lead to pain, suffering, loss of fertility and even death.

Abortion and reproductive choice access is hanging by a thread, and as a Montana state legislator for Kalispell’s House District 7, I must support affordable safe access to reproductive choice and health care. The women of our state, and our country, deserve nothing less.

Angela Kennedy is a Democratic candidate for Kalispell’s House District 7.