Women’s rights in Montana are under attack right now both intentionally by the Constitution Party and unintentionally through what Planned Parenthood Montana’s CEO Stacey James called “a technical error that we expect to be righted.”
The Constitution Party has filed an amendment to Montana’s constitution that would recognize human life as beginning at conception. Meaning, a miscarriage could be considered a form of child neglect or murder if there were significant health issues involved. An abortion would be homicide. The morning after pill or Plan B would definitely be illegal because according to these guys, life, full human life with all of its inalienable rights will have begun. And anything done to harm that life can be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
I realize it’s a slippery slope I’m heading down, but these things would be possible if this amendment is accepted and voted in as part of Montana’s constitution.
Although the potential effects of this proposed amendment are in the future, since Congress passed the Deficit Reduction Act in 2006, organizations like college health centers and Planned Parenthood are forced to purchase birth control prescriptions at twice the cost they used to. Organizations like these are in place for women who either don’t have health insurance or are not comfortable using their parent’s health insurance for services they need. This Act actually affects everyone in the U.S., not just Montana. However in Montana, we have Planned Parenthoods that make services available to women in very rural areas and the affordability of their services is paramount. Under the restrictions of this act, they will no longer be able to offer birth control for free or at cost.
Many colleges in the U.S. including our own Montana State University, Missoula, knew of the cost hike so they bought as much as they could afford under the old nominal prices. However that was in 2006 for 2007, and now for the fall and spring semesters, birth control prices have gone from $20 to $50 for college women.
Women’s choices are getting narrower. Why are we asking women to go back to a time when more women died of complications in childbirth and illegal back alley abortions than from actual life threatening illnesses? And why is our government making abortion seem like the most logical choice because birth control is too expensive? All of these questions, but what are the true and just answers?