Montana Supreme Court upholds ruling that allows some nurses to provide abortions

The Montana Supreme Court has upheld a lower court’s decision that allowed advanced practice registered nurses to legally provide abortions in the state.

On Friday, the state’s high court issued its ruling in Weems v. State, negating the state’s argument that the Legislature had the ability to regulate a nurse’s scope of practice that is currently overseen by a professional medical board.

In the opinion written by Supreme Court Justice Laurie McKinnon, the high court also reaffirmed the precedent set in 1999 by Armstrong v. State, which found that abortion is a medical choice protected by the state’s constitutional right to privacy.

“The Montana Constitution guarantees a woman a fundamental right to privacy to seek abortion care from a qualified health care provider of her choosing, absent a clear demonstration of a medically acknowledged, bona fide health risk,” McKinnon wrote.

The court’s six other justices concurred with McKinnon’s opinion.

Weems v. State dates back to 2018 when the Center for Reproductive Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union of Montana filed a lawsuit against the state on behalf of two advanced practice registered nurses, including Helen Weems, a certified nurse practitioner.

The suit asked the court to block a state law that prohibited advanced practice registered nurses from providing abortions. At the time, Weems was trying to reopen All Families Healthcare, a Flathead County-based clinic that provided abortions from 1997 until 2014 when it was vandalized and destroyed. In 2018, a Lewis and Clark County District Court judge allowed Weems to provide abortion care while the case proceeded through the court system. All Families Healthcare to reopened in Whitefish early that year.

In February of 2022, the judge ruled that advanced practice registered nurses could legally provide abortions. The state appealed that decision to the Montana Supreme Court, and oral arguments in the case were held in December.

During that hearing, attorneys for the state argued that the lower court decision should be overturned and the law allowing only physicians and physician assistants to provide abortions be upheld. Attorneys for the state also argued that it was an issue of safety, alleging that advanced practice nurses were not qualified to perform medical and surgical abortions. But in its ruling on Friday, the Montana Supreme Court found that there was no evidence to support that argument.

“The record is devoid of any evidence that advanced practice registered nurses providing abortion care present a medically acknowledged, bona fide health risk to Montana women,” McKinnon wrote. “The State’s argument is detached from the overwhelming evidence presented to the District Court that abortion care is one of the safest forms of medical care in this country and the world and that advanced practice registered nurses are qualified providers.”

The Montana Attorney General’s office could appeal the decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals but hadn’t responded to a request for comment early Friday afternoon.

Reporter Justin Franz can be reached at jafranz88@gmail.com. The Montana Free Press is a Helena-based nonprofit newsroom. To read the article as originally published, click here.