With Abortion on the Ballot in Montana, “Pro-Life” Groups are Striking a Different Tone

Mitch Morgan calls CI-128 “a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

A Kalispell resident and small business owner, Morgan is part of a local effort to mobilize against a ballot initiative that, if passed in November, will enshrine a right to abortion in Montana’s constitution.

In contrast to the millions in targeted campaigns and advertisements funded by abortion rights groups this year, the Flathead Valley’s anti-abortion organizers, including Morgan, have been operating largely behind the scenes. In church pews, Facebook pages and family dinners, anti-abortion advocates have urged friends, family and neighbors to reject the initiative, calling it “extreme” and “misleading.”  

Though the Flathead Valley – and Montana – have long been home to anti-abortion activism, and at times, violence, activists’ messaging around CI-128 is reflecting a slightly different tone than in the past — one that recognizes the complicated landscape of public opinion around abortion access and the precarious place of “pro-life” groups in 2024.

Many opponents of Montana’s abortion rights ballot initiative have centered their arguments not around their larger distaste for abortion, but around the particularities of CI-128 that they say make it “dangerous” for Montana.

Constitutional Initiative 128, or CI-128, would amend the Montana constitution to explicitly provide a right to “make and carry out decisions about one’s own pregnancy, including the right to abortion.”

Despite roadblocks from Republican state officials and reported intimidation by anti-abortion activists, CI-128 organizers collected more than 117,000 signatures to get the initiative on the ballot, nearly double the number it needed to qualify. 

Progressive groups have poured millions into the state to support the initiative, which advocates hope will secure access to abortion in a post-Roe v. Wade landscape. It is one of 10 abortion access initiatives on the ballot in states across the country this fall, which, according to polling, voters are poised to approve. Democrats hope it will boost their candidates up and down the ballot, including U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, who is facing a tight reelection match.

Tester during a Whitefish rally earlier this month called the overturning of Roe v. Wade “the greatest reduction of freedom in my lifetime” and endorsed CI-128.

Conservatives have described CI-128 as “extreme,” “bad policy” and “anti-woman.”

“This is not middle-of-the road anything,” Speaker of the Montana House Matt Regier told the Beacon.

Kalispell Republican state Sen. John Fuller said, “Make no mistake, the ‘privacy and freedom’ is a red herring to justify the extermination of a life without due process of the law.”

Fuller criticized “the desperation of the pro-abortion movement” and said, “Regardless of your belief about abortion, CI-128 is not needed.”

“It’s not political. It’s not about religion. It’s about morality. It’s about an unborn child’s right to live,” Mike Hanson, who organizes demonstrations and prayer services outside of All Families Healthcare in Whitefish, said. 

He added, “My belief is that a lot of women are totally clueless as to what goes on during an abortion.”

Activists have widely distributed flyers that pick apart the language of CI-128 and lean into claims that the initiative would permit abortion up until the moment of birth and open the door to nefarious activity, including sex trafficking and abuse.

Ashley All, spokesperson for Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights, the group behind CI 128, said in an email, “These outrageous claims are false and have been proven false numerous times. This is an offensive and deliberate effort to scare and deceive voters. The truth is CI-128 simply protects our current right to abortion before viability, and ensures that women and their families can make decisions about pregnancy and abortion – not the government.”

Less than 1% of abortions occur in the third trimester of pregnancy, and infanticide, the crime of killing a baby under the age of one, is a crime in all 50 states. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists does not use the term “late-term abortions,” saying it has “no clinical or medical significance.” 

Even in a reddening Montana, anti-abortion groups face an uphill battle as they organize against CI-128. Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights has raised $11.8 million this election cycle, compared to the $105,000 brought in by a constellation of anti-abortion groups, per OpenSecrets.  According to the Pew Research Center, a majority of Americans support abortion access, a percentage that has only grown since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.

Montana’s libertarian streak has endowed even some of its conservative residents with the feeling that abortion restrictions cede too much power to government. In a New York Times/Siena College poll of likely Montana voters conducted earlier this month, 15% of voters said abortion was the most important issue deciding their vote in November. Twenty-five percent of women polled ranked abortion as their number one issue.

Morgan and others are cognizant of this reality.

“That is where that discussion has had to take place,” Morgan said. “I’m going to accept that this is reality, because if you don’t, you might as well be yelling at the sky at this point.”

Much anti-CI-128 messaging has emphasized that abortion is already legal in Montana, and, according to anti-abortion groups, can remain so without the ballot initiative.

Kalispell Republican state Rep. Amy Regier, who has brought numerous anti-abortion bills to the House floor, wrote in a letter opposing CI-128 that Montanans “already have strong protections for abortion.”

Advocates have adopted some the language of abortion rights groups, saying CI-128 would insert government in people’s personal decisions and create unintended consequences.

In a video posted by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena, Tania Wise, founder of Kalispell-based anti-abortion group Abort Ignorance Montana said, “Many people think that when it comes to abortion, the government should just stay out of our business. I totally understand that.”

Wise continued, “… CI-128 would put abortion directly into our state constitution, and would create government sanctioned ‘late-term abortion.’ If you, like me, would like to keep your autonomy from the government, we should actually be voting no on CI-128.”

Notably, numerous conservative politicians in Montana have explicitly outlined their ultimate goal of banning abortion.

Morgan said he’s made inroads in convincing people that the specifics of CI -128 are wrong for Montana, even if they may support abortion access at-large.

“There’s not enough time to have the argument of ‘pro-life,’ ‘pro-choice,’” he said.

The important conversations, rather, are in the details.

Grassroots organizing has been foundational for CI-128’s opponents.

In email newsletters and Facebook posts, representatives from the Flathead County Republican Central Committee have urged members to text and call friends and knock doors.

An email sent on Oct. 18 included sample scripts for talking to friends and family. Included were questions such as, “Can unborn babies rely on your NO vote on CI-128 to protect their lives?”  and “Can Constitutional Conservatives Dan Wilson and Cory Swanson rely on your vote?” in the upcoming state Supreme Court races.

Churches across the state have published messages from pastors and priests imploring congregants to reject CI-128.

While religious organizations are banned from engaging in political activity, per the Internal Revenue Service, they can engage in limited lobbying, including for or against ballot measures.

Fuller, the state senator, said, “The more the pulpits get involved, the better.”

“To the extent that we can make politics and these things more personal, I think we have a better political system, and we can achieve better outcomes,” Todd Bernhardt, ground game committee chair for the Flathead Republicans, said.

Much of Bernhardt’s job involves mobilizing local precinct captains, who then go on to spread the Republican message to friends and neighbors.

“If you’re talking to someone you know, that’s a much different conversation than talking to a random person who’s been hired by a campaign,” he said.

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, an anti-abortion group, announced a deployment of over 50 canvassers in Helena, Bozeman, Missoula and Billings earlier this year. Local activism, however, has defined Republican efforts in the Flathead.

Berhardt said he doesn’t focus much on the competition, or the $11 million they’ve raised. Rather, he’s working to build a movement, one that he thinks can, with time, overcome the other side’s outsize funding arm.

“Money speaks into a void,” he said. “If the grassroots becomes effective, then it removes that void.”

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