Montana Lawmakers Weigh Assisted Suicide Bills

https://www.choiceillusionmontana.org/2025/03/montana-lawmakers-weigh-assisted.html

Opponents and advocates say the issue isn't red or blue--it's emotional and personal. 

On Friday, a Montana bill that would have codified assisted suicide into state law died in a state House committee after gaining bipartisan support.

Two days before, the committee heard more than an hour of emotional testimony on the bill from members of the public. Rep. Tracy Sharp, a Republican, acknowledged that the bill raises questions about the sanctity of life.

“I’m anti-abortion,” he said ahead of a vote on the bill. “But I just can’t vote to deny all the people that we heard … something that I would want for myself.” Sharp said that voting no on the measure “would be too hypocritical. I would like to die with dignity.”

Assisted suicide in Montana has taken place in a legal gray area since 2009, when the state Supreme Court ruled that doctors can cite the consent of a patient as a defense to a charge of murder. Despite a longstanding Republican majority in the House and Senate, the topic has divided the state legislature for years. Montana has neither officially legalized the practice nor closed the court-created loophole. As legislators consider the issue again this year, lawmakers and lobbyists attribute the bipartisan support and opposition to assisted suicide to the personal nature and emotional complexity of the debate.

Bill bolstering Montana Missing Indigenous Persons Task Force becomes Law

While Montana is one of only a few states to have a dedicated Missing Indigenous Persons Task Force, the inability of that organization to accept funding has hamstrung its efforts. [Pictured members listed below] *

That will soon change thanks to a new state law. 

Brought by Rep. Tyson Running Wolf, D-Browning, House Bill 83 establishes a state special revenue account, allowing the task force to receive donations, grants, gifts and other money for training, equipment and operational expenses. The bill also appropriates $1 in state funding to get the new account started. 

HB 83 sailed through the House and Senate and was signed into law Thursday by the governor. It takes effect July 1.

Montana Senate Votes Down Bill to Require Ten Commandments in Public School Classrooms

The Montana Senate voted down a bill Saturday to require public schools to post the Ten Commandments in every classroom, albeit with an emotional debate about the need for moral standards in the country and the atrocities inflicted in the name of religion.

Sen. Jason Ellsworth, R-Hamilton, said he’s a Christian who morally supports the Ten Commandments, but he prayed about the bill, and he couldn’t support it.

Ellsworth said senators swear an oath to defend the Constitution, which prohibits the establishment of a religion.

“So if we put the Ten Commandments up, which are Christian commandments, then we’re actually violating the plain language of our Constitution in our First Amendment,” Ellsworth said.

The Senate voted 24-26 against the bill after a lengthy debate, which followed an earlier floor debate and a committee hearing that brought supporters with national profiles to testify in its favor.

Sen. Bob Phalen, R-Lindsay, sponsored Senate Bill 114, modeled after a similar bill in Louisiana that’s being litigated, and proposed with the idea the U.S. Supreme Court may be evolving to be more friendly to government accommodation of religion.

In an earlier debate, Sen. Susan Webber, D-Browning, [pictured above] proposed an unsuccessful amendment to exempt school districts on or near Native American reservations with more than one Indian student enrolled.

Webber said the federal government and Catholic church subjected Native children to mental and physical abuse, and they should not experience more abuse in the name of Christianity.

“Not on my watch will I allow the Indian children of Montana to suffer more indignities,” said Webber, member of the Blackfeet Nation.

Bathroom Bill Clears GOP-Led Legislature

by Mara Silvers, Montana Free Press

Original publication 02/12/25

A bill that would require public and some private facilities to enforce sex-segregated spaces for multiuser bathrooms, dormitories and locker rooms cleared its final vote hurdle in the Montana Legislature on Tuesday.

The measure, which received party-line Republican support and vocal opposition from Democrats and transgender Montanans throughout its lightning-fast path through the Legislature, is next expected to be transmitted to Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte’s desk. It would take effect immediately upon being signed into law.

Proponents touted the bill, House Bill 121, as a way to enforce the separation of men and women in public places and curb threats of harassment or assault from people of the opposite sex. 

“This bill isn’t about exclusion — it’s about common-sense boundaries that ensure fairness and respect in vulnerable spaces like restrooms, locker rooms and correctional facilities,” said bill sponsor Rep. Kerri Seekins-Crowe, R-Billings, in a Tuesday comment to Montana Free Press. “Montanans deserve the peace of mind that their families are safe, and I look forward to Governor Gianforte signing HB 121 into law.”

A spokesperson for Gianforte said Tuesday that the governor welcomes legislation that “provides privacy and security to women and girls in private spaces” and that he will “carefully consider” any bill that comes to his desk. Lt. Gov. Kristin Juras consistently testified in favor of the bill during its committee hearings.

Bathroom Bill Clears GOP-led Legislature, Poised to Become Law

A bill that would require public and some private facilities to enforce sex-segregated spaces for multiuser bathrooms, dormitories and locker rooms cleared its final vote hurdle in the Montana Legislature on Tuesday. 

The measure, which received party-line Republican support and vocal opposition from Democrats and transgender Montanans throughout its lightning-fast path through the Legislature, is next expected to be transmitted to Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte’s desk. It would take effect immediately upon being signed into law.

Proponents touted the bill, House Bill 121, as a way to enforce the separation of men and women in public places and curb threats of harassment or assault from people of the opposite sex. 

Proposed Felony Bill for Adults Who Procure, Provide Treatment for Trans Minors Advances

A majority of lawmakers in the Montana Senate voted in favor of a bill Monday that would create a felony for parents, medical providers and other adults who provide or procure gender-transition related treatments to transgender adolescents. 

Senate Bill 164, sponsored by Sen. John Fuller, R-Kalispell, cleared an initial hurdle in the Republican-controlled chamber Monday afternoon by a 30-20 vote, with two Republicans joining Democrats in opposition.

The bill would expand Montana’s criminal child endangerment statute to include penalties for any adult who “knowingly procures or provides” puberty blockers, hormone therapies or surgeries to minors under 16 years old for the purpose of aligning the youth’s appearance with their gender identity if it is not the same as their “biological sex,” a term that the legislation does not define.

Montana Senate Eliminates Protections for Physician-Assisted Aid in Dying

By Darrell Ehrlick

Currently, physician-assisted aid in dying in Montana occupies a legal gray area. A 2009 Montana Supreme Court ruling said a physician can raise a defense in a homicide case, saying that a patient consented and sought out the drugs, but the high court said that it was ultimately up to the Legislature to make the final decision on the legality of physician assistance in suicide.

On Friday, the Montana Senate passed Senate Bill 136, which would disallow patient consent as a defense to physician-assisted aid in dying, effectively giving physicians no legal protection if they participated in administering drugs that would end a terminally ill patient's life.

The measure passed 29-20, with all Democrats voting against the measure.  Three Republicans joined the Democrats...

Senate Bill Seeking to Prohibit Legal Assisted Suicide Faces Third and Final Reading

By Alex Schadenberg

Senator Glimm

Montanans have a confusing legal situation concerning assisted suicide. 

In 2009, [Montana's] Baxter court decision declared that Montanans have a right to assisted suicide. The Baxter decision was appealed to the Montana Supreme Court where it was decided that there is not a right to assisted suicide in Montana[.]  ... [The Baxter court also] found a "defense of consent" meaning a Montana physician who assists a suicide must prove that there was consent [to death by the person who died.]

Senate Bill 136 legislatively declares that there is no defense of consent. ...

The Montana Public Service Commission (PSC) Had No Authority to Go Forward Regarding Climate Change

Consideration of the Montana climate change petition was outside of the jurisdiction of Montana's Public Service Commission (PSC), set forth here:  https://psc.mt.gov/About-Us/What-We-Do 

In the event that providing such jurisdiction would have been advisable, it would have been up to Montana's Legislature to enact appropriate legislation regarding same.

Without such enactment, addressing the proposed climate change petition was ultra vires, meaning beyond the scope of PSC's authority.

The Commission had no authority to go forward regarding the issue of climate change.  Going forward was a waste of taxpayer dollars.

Gov. Gianforte's Foundation Has Given Away $57 Million Since 2017. Here's Where It Went.

Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte is among the state’s highest-profile political figures. He’s also a major philanthropic force.  Nonprofit tax records indicate that his family foundation gave $57 million to charities and social issue nonprofits between 2017, the year Gianforte was first elected to public office as a Montana congressman, and 2022, the most recent year for which detailed data is publicly available. 

Montana Legislature Responds to Held Climate Case Montana Supreme Court Ruling

By Staff Writer, Montana Sentinel Press 

Incoming President of the Senate Matt Regier, Kalispell [pictured right], and Speaker of the House Brandon Ler, R-Savage, issued the following statement in response to the Montana Supreme Court’s ruling today [06/18/24] in the Held v. Montana case: 

The Montana Supreme Court turned the courtroom into a legislative policy committee, drastically overstepping its constitutional boundaries into the Legislature’s role and violating the separation of powers. Montanans will continue to suffer decades of economic and social harm if we don’t turn our activist and overreaching courts around.

Judicial reform was already a top priority for Republican lawmakers in our legislative session that starts in less than three weeks. After today, our message to the judiciary is simply this: buckle up. 

The Lesson From Montana, Stop Judicial Usurpation Before It Becomes Too Late

By Rob Natelson

From time to time I’ve told the story of how the left-leaning activists on the Montana Supreme Court exercise oligarchical control over the people of the state state—see, for example, here, here, and here. (“Oligarchy” means “rule by the few, as opposed to “democracy,” rule by the people.)

By misconstruing parts of the state constitution, the Montana justices have snatched state public policy from the democratic branches of government. Among the areas of policy where the justices’ political preferences are decisive are election law, environmental law, business regulation, and health law.

In those areas, the court severely restricts the options open to the people’s elected representatives. For example, when the legislature decided to move back the voter registration deadline from Election Day to the day before, the court declared the change unconstitutional. (Of course, the deadline for registration traditionally has been a full month before Election Day.) The court didn’t give the legislature even 24 hours leeway!