HELENA — The Montana Legislature is now a week and a half away from a key deadline: transmittal, when most bills need to pass either the House or the Senate to stay alive. As it approaches, some legislative committees are spending longer hours meeting.
The House Judiciary Committee, one of the Legislature’s busiest, started meeting at 7 a.m. this week. On Tuesday, they held hearings on ten bills and voted on another four.
“I know you’ve got a long agenda,” said Rep. Bill Mercer, R-Billings.
(Watch the video to see some of the debate from Tuesday's hearings.)
One of the bills heard was House Bill 555, sponsored by Rep. Kerri Seekins-Crowe, R-Billings. It would put tighter restrictions on medications like mifepristone that are used to induce abortions.
HB 555 would say a provider couldn’t offer a medication abortion if it “affects interstate commerce,” unless they examined the patient in person. During the Biden administration, federal authorities removed a requirement that mifepristone be distributed in person, allowing it to be prescribed through telehealth and sent through the mail.
The bill would also threaten manufacturers of the medication with fines if “endocrine-disrupting chemical byproducts from chemical abortion drugs” are found in Montana wastewater systems.
Supporters framed HB 555 as an environmental measure.
“I would say that we do really need to take a look at this,” said Seekins-Crowe. “We do need to be also concerned about not just patient safety, but also about our clean and healthful environment.”
Opponents said the bill was a backdoor attempt to limit access to abortion, and that it went against Montana voters’ decision to approve a ballot measure that protected the right to abortion in the state constitution.
“We have been able to assert the rights of women in our state, and in the meantime, we have proposals like this that are saying, ‘Now it's about water,’” said Kelsen Young, executive director of the Montana Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence. “No, if you look at the bill, this is about controlling women and controlling their reproductive access.”
Reports estimate medication abortions now make up 63% of abortions nationwide.
Seekins-Crowe is also sponsoring House Bill 609, set to be heard in House Judiciary Wednesday. It would create a new criminal offense of “abortion trafficking,” when someone travels outside Montana to get an abortion that wouldn’t be legal inside the state, or assists someone in traveling for that reason. It would establish a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $1,000 fine.
Mercer presented three bills before the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday. Two of them were reactions to recent rulings from the Montana Supreme Court.
House Bill 578 would remove a provision in law that allows judges to consider a convicted person’s ability to pay when setting the amount they must pay a victim for restitution. It would require an offender to wait a year before asking a judge to waive their restitution payments.
Mercer said it was always the Legislature’s intent that restitution amounts be set without considering an offender’s financial position. He said waiving the required restitution at the time of sentencing would mean more victims wouldn’t be made whole. Opponents of HB 578 warned that setting restitution without considering what the person can pay could set them up for failure and make it more likely they’ll end up back in custody.
House Bill 582 would make it harder for inmates to get credit on their sentences for time served – including stating that they can’t get credit for multiple unrelated offenses at once. Representatives for the Montana Department of Justice said the current law means some people who reoffend while already in prison end up not receiving any additional time because their entire new sentence is covered by time served – a situation they said means there’s no incentive not to commit another offense.
House Judiciary is scheduled to continue meeting at 7 a.m. through Friday, and they have 33 bills set for hearings over those three days.
Leaders say committees may also need to meet on Saturday to continue driving through the long list of bills.
