Group seeks anti-abortion amendment to Montana constitution 


HELENA (AP) - Members of an anti-abortion group gathered Wednesday at the Montana Capitol in support of a proposed state constitutional amendment that would define human life as beginning at conception.

Annie Bukacek, a Kalispell physician and president of the Montana Prolife Coalition, said the proposal is designed to stop the killing of unborn children.

"It is designed to stop the killing and not regulate the killing," she said, referring to other laws that place restrictions on abortion.

Rep. Matthew Monforton, R-Bozeman, is sponsoring House Bill 425, which is expected to have its first hearing on Monday. It's the third time such a bill has come before the Legislature. Similar efforts in other states also have failed.

Monforton told people at the rally that while putting together the bill, he "contemplated the evil of the abortion we're trying to stop." He added that it faces a tough road in the Legislature.

"It may not happen this session but we're going to keep fighting until it does," he said.

Two-thirds of lawmakers would have to support the bill for it to be placed on the November 2016 ballot.

Some anti-abortion groups are against the measure, according to Gregg Trude with the group Montana Right to Life. He referred to the measure as nonsense and said now is not the time to push an amendment because it could end up before a non-sympathetic U.S. Supreme Court.

"They just think faith will win in the end," he said of the coalition pushing the amendment. "But God also gives us wisdom to do things at the right time."

Cal Zastrow said the coalition is prepared and not worried about litigation that could result from changing the state Constitution.

"Our goal is not overturning Roe v. Wade," he said of the 1973 Supreme Court decision that upheld a woman's right to an abortion until the fetus is viable outside the womb, usually at 22 to 24 weeks.

"The point is protecting every innocent person in Montana."