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Big Sky Connection
Like other states, lawmakers in Montana have passed bills that would restrict access to abortion. However, a 1999 court decision provides an extra layer of protection for abortion care in the state. Comments from Caitlin Borgmann, executive director, ACLU of Montana. (Additional pronouncer: Knudsen, "kuh-NUD-sen.")
Click on the image above for the audio. Nutrients such as phosphorous and nitrogen are major threats to water quality in Montana's rivers. (spiritofamerica/Adobe Stock)
Eric Tegethoff
An environmental group has filed a lawsuit in an effort to urge the Environmental Protection Agency to address changes to how water quality is measured in Montana.
Upper Missouri Riverkeeper says the EPA has failed to respond to changes put in place by the Montana Legislature in 2021. Senate Bill 358 changes how nutrients are measured in Montana waterways from a numeric system to a narrative system.
Lawmakers say the numeric system is too difficult and costly to implement. However, Guy Alsentzer, executive director of Upper Missouri Riverkeeper, said the narrative system is subjective and reactive.
He said Montana is well-known for its outdoor recreation - a $7 billion industry.
"That is predicated in large part on our clean and healthy outdoors and free-flowing rivers," said Alsentzer. "Yet the number one source of our pollution is - in fact - nutrients, and now we have a state law that's flouting requirements to fundamentally protect waterways from that."
The EPA must review states' changes to water quality standards to ensure they comply with the Clean Water Act.
SB 358 passed a year ago, but the state still is in the process of designing the new rules. The Montana Department of Environmental Quality has not submitted the new rules to the EPA because of this.
But Alsentzer said the EPA has known for long enough that the state planned to start using what he calls an unproven method for measuring nutrients in water.
"EPA has a duty to take action," said Alsentzer. "This case is really about EPA sitting on its hands because of an uncomfortable political reality as opposed to doing its job."
Alsentzer said the city of Helena tried to apply for a wastewater permit renewal with the new standards, but his group challenged the process.
In response, the EPA wrote a formal letter to the state saying the numeric standard still is in place until the agency approves the updated rules.
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PNS - Monday, April 4, 2022 - A study finds flaws in how states count juveniles in custody, consumers are warned to be wary of scams seeking contributions for Ukraine, and older Americans shoulder the growing burden of college debt.
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PNS - Monday, April 4, 2022 - Ukraine accuses Russia of a massacre, a vote on President Biden s Supreme Court pick is set for today, and the House mulls pandemic aid for hard-hit businesses.
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Big Sky Connection
Like other states, lawmakers in Montana have passed bills that would restrict access to abortion. However, a 1999 court decision provides an extra layer of protection for abortion care in the state. Comments from Caitlin Borgmann, executive director, ACLU of Montana. (Additional pronouncer: Knudsen, "kuh-NUD-sen.")
Click on the image for the audio. Montana and other states have protected abortion access under constitutional provisions that recognize a person's right to privacy. (trac1/Adobe Stock)
Eric Tegethoff
April 1, 2022
Montana is part of a national trend of increasing challenges to abortion access. An injunction was placed on three abortion restriction bills passed in the 2021 session. Now, Attorney General Austin Knudsen wants the state Supreme Court to lift the injunction.
The barrier to the bills being enforced is a 1999 case, Armstrong v. State, in which abortion access was linked to Montana's privacy protections. Knudsen called the decision "judicial activism."
Caitlin Borgmann, executive director of the ACLU of Montana, described the Armstrong decision as "Montana's Roe v. Wade."
"Without overturning Armstrong, they know that the measures like the ones that passed in 2021 are unconstitutional," she said. "I think that's pretty obvious, and that's why the attorney general is asking the Montana Supreme Court to overturn Armstrong."
The ACLU of Montana, along with the National Women's Law Center and the Center for Reproductive Rights, have filed a "friend of the court" brief, asking the court to keep the Armstrong decision in place. The bills lawmakers passed in 2021 restrict abortion after 20 weeks, require ultrasounds for patients seeking abortions and create barriers to obtaining abortion medication in person and by mail.
Borgman said a contingent of Montana politicians has made it their mission to stop abortions, but past polls have shown the majority of Montanans believe the medical procedure should be legal, in all or most cases.
"I don't think that that threat necessarily represents the will of Montanans as a whole," she said, "and Montana is just different, in that we have this specific protection in the Montana Constitution."
Borgmann said overturning the privacy protections in the Armstrong decision would affect more than just abortion access. She contended it would harm the state's most vulnerable populations, especially members of the LGBTQ community.
"These laws are a clear and deliberate attempt by politicians to undermine and denigrate the Montana Constitution," she said, " and not just the right to abortion, but the right to privacy more generally."
