by Helena Lovick | Sep 6, 2022 | Elections
Montana Republicans want to ban all abortion and more with their 2022 Party Platform
In July 2022, the Montana Republican party approved a new party platform at their platform convention. You might be asking yourself. What the funk is a party platform? Why should I care? Well, well, well, you’ve come to the right place and you absolutely should care.
What the funk is a party platform?
A political party platform is a formalized set of goals supported by a political party. By checking out a party’s platform you can see a party’s principles, goals and positions. This helps predict what legislators and leaders will actually do if they’re elected. For example, this data analysis found that “Overall, Democrats in Congress voted for positions that matched their platforms 74 percent of the time in the past 30 years, while Republicans did so 89 percent of the time.” This year the Montana GOP successfully introduced platform language to explicitly call on the Republican legislators to identify bills that link to specific elements in the platform and to pass at least 20 such bills in each chamber to ensure that “Party Platform goals become a priority each session.” We absolutely can expect the MT GOP platform to have a direct connection to the laws passed by Montana Republicans in the future.
What does a Montana Republican majority in 2023 look like?
Glad you asked! Let’s take a gander at what Montana Republicans have put in their party platform to see what kind of shit they’re bringing for us in 2023.
For abortion rights, the Montana Republican platform now states, “We support complete ban on elective abortion.” And yes, they mean a complete ban on abortions with no exceptions for rape, incest, or the life of the mother. At the Republican convention, a couple of moderate Republicans tried to soften the language to provide exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother. Those attempted arguments were met with boos and voted down. Cheers were heard when Republican Derek Skees of Kalispell interjected, “I was involved in helping put this language in here: life begins at conception. Period.”
Yep, they don’t care if the pregnant person’s life is in danger because of an ectopic pregnancy or the fact that EVERY pregnancy carries health risks. Born with a uterus? Boom, second class citizen. We already knew the Great Falls Republican legislators voted against our abortion rights, but this extreme language shows us how far they wish to go.
What other areas do we have to worry about? Too many to list. Here are some other areas with concerning language from the Republican party platform:
- LGBTQ+ issues “We believe the ideal traditional family structure is a father and a mother….” “We support policies and services that preserve and strengthen the traditional family units as well as promoting the wellbeing and innocence of children and youth.” Where do these positions leave space for our LGBTQ+ citizens?
- Undermining of public schools, “adopt school choice policies.” “Facilitating programs that allow money to follow the child for education opportunities…inside or outside the public school system.”
- Inaction on climate change “we…oppose any regulation on domestic energy production or consumption. We oppose any and all parts of the Green New Deal, the ‘War on Fossil Fuels’, the Paris Climate Accord…”
- Attacks on worker rights “We believe that membership in labor bargaining units should be optional.”
Wow.
I do not look forward to living in a state moving full speed ahead towards this agenda. Republicans have made it clear that they intend to reshape Montana into a Big-Government haven with no respect for individual privacy. If Republicans maintain their stranglehold on state offices, Montana’s future looks dystopian indeed.
by Helena Lovick | Jul 8, 2022 | Abortions Rights
As the marchers walked on the hot pavement, loud chants of “my body, my choice,” and cheers filled the air. Over fifty pro-choice protestors marched in the Great Falls’ 4th of July parade alongside the Cascade County Democrats.
Two weeks ago, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned the privacy protections established by Roe v. Wade. Upending nearly 50 years of abortion protections, the issue was thrown back to the states. In Great Falls, multiple pro-choice grassroots groups have sprung up. Nearly daily protests have taken place on 10th Ave. South and the Central Ave. West Bridge. The people are outraged, as they should be!
While abortion is still legal in Montana, the outcome of the upcoming 2022 elections will determine the fate of abortion rights in our state.
Right now, our rights to privacy and control over our reproductive rights are protected by the Montana Constitution. When the Republican majority in the Montana Legislature passed anti-choice legislation in the 2021 Legislative session, several repulsive anti-choice bills were signed into law by our Republican Governor Gianforte. Thanks to the strong protections in the Montana Constitution, three of the laws are temporarily on hold while their fate is decided by legal challenges. Governor Gianforte is threatening a special session of the legislature once these legal challenges are decided in order to remove abortion protections in Montana. At a cost of $100,000 on the first day and $50,000 thereafter, a special session – just to remove our rights, could easily end of costing Montanans over half a million dollars.
Republicans have two routes to weaken and undermine Montana’s Constitution. And let’s be clear, they are working hard on both routes to remove our bodily autonomy.
Route #1: Gain a supermajority in the Montana Legislature
If the legal challenges don’t go their way, Republicans are counting on a gaining enough legislative seats in the upcoming election to attempt revising our Montana Constitution. They want to remove the inconvenient elements, like our rights to privacy, rights to a clean and healthful environment and a guarantee of equality of education opportunity to all. (How horrible! A right to individual privacy not infringed by the government!
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Route #2: Undermine and pack the Montana Supreme Court with Extreme Conservatives
Montana Republicans have been attacking the independence of the Montana Supreme Court in preparation for packing the court with judges friendly to their unconstitutional legislative agenda. Our current, incumbent Montana Supreme Court Justices (Ingrid Gustafson and Jim Rice) respect the separation of branches of government and our Montana Constitution. Republicans seem to be saying, “let’s throw judicial independence out the window” as they go all in on partisan politics in these judicial races. Who needs separate branches of government, amirite? Republicans are supporting two conservative judicial candidates to change the make-up of the Montana Supreme Court. With a more conservative slanted court, Montana Republicans hope their anti-abortion laws will win future legal challenges.
Rights to privacy and reproductive freedoms won’t stay in place in Montana if more conservatives are elected in judicial positions and legislative roles. The good news is, we have four months to win elections and help preserve our rights to our own bodies. Let’s seize our chance while we still have one to protect our freedoms.
[Full Disclosure: I have helped organize two of the Great Falls pro-choice protests and marched in the 4th of July parade alongside the pro-choice group].
by Helena Lovick | May 25, 2022 | Uncategorized
2012
I was pregnant when the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting happened. I remember folding laundry while tears poured down my face. Those poor children and their families. What an unthinkable tragedy. Surely, we would do something about gun violence when 20 first graders were murdered in their school.
Our politicians spoke passionately on both sides of the issue. But the Republican majority in Congress ensured that no new gun violence prevention legislation would reach the President’s desk.
2018
When the Parkland school shooting happened, high school students organized March for Our Lives. This time it seemed different. We had new energy in the gunsense fight.
But again, the GOP majority Congress ensured our gun laws remained lax.
2019
When back-to-back shootings happened at an El Paso grocery store and a Dayton, Ohio bar, gun violence prevention organizers were fed up. I personally organized a rally in Great Falls to call on our members of Congress to pass stronger red flag laws and universal criminal background check legislation.
Our gun laws remained just as lax as before Sandy Hook.
In Montana, we have loosened our firearm restrictions even more
A Republican legislative effort put LR-130 on the ballot in 2020. Montanans passed the referendum which “prohibits any county from having regulations restricting the permitted concealed carry of weapons in Montana.”
In 2021, a GOP majority in the legislature and newly elected Republican Governor Gianforte, signed into law legislation eliminating permit requirements to carry a concealed handgun in nearly all public places (H.B. 102). This law removes requirements for background checks or safety training to concealed carry. The bill also forced colleges and universities to allow anyone to carry concealed, loaded firearms on campus. The university system Montana Board of Regents filed a lawsuit over those provisions of the law and the District Court found some portions of the law unconstitutional. Montana Attorney General Knudsen appealed the ruling to the Montana Supreme Court and the case is still pending.
Gianforte also signed a law prohibiting local and state authorities from enforcing any federal bans on firearms, ammunition and magazines.
Which brings us to today
On Tuesday, May 24th, 2022, a man went into an elementary school in Ulvalde, Texas and murdered 19 children and 2 adults. Second, third and fourth graders. I cried in front of my third grader when I heard the news. My eight-year-old asked, “What’s wrong mommy? Why are you crying?” And I couldn’t tell her the complete truth. Because my baby has to walk into her classroom tomorrow.
Every day, I send my elementary aged children off to school and I wonder. Will this be the day? Will today be my worst nightmare? I compartmentalize it and hug them tight when they get home. And I do that over and over again like so many other American parents.
It is time for change
As our federal and state politicians eagerly pass more and more lax gun laws in a hopeless effort to appease gun rights advocates, are we safer? Does loosening of gun restrictions help? No.
America has homicide rates 7 times higher than other peer countries, mainly driven by gun homicide rates that are 25.2 times higher. We have yet to see data from the impacts of Montana’s newly loosened gun restrictions. But nationwide trends indicate what the effects will be. In 2020, Montana had the 11th highest gun death rate in the country. We haven’t implemented any measures to curb that violence. That means risks have gotten worse.
When will we be the voice for the voiceless and say enough? When will we stand up to prevent these tragedies?
It is time for change. There are known regulations that balance gun ownership with public safety. Preventative measures such as universal background checks on gun sales, red flag laws, and safety training. But our politicians must have the courage to pass them into law. If our representatives won’t act, we need to elect people who will.
With love for all of our nation’s gun violence victims,
Helena
by Helena Lovick | May 9, 2022 | Elections, Schools
Since Covid, drama and controversy in our schools have dominated the news. Calling themselves the “parental rights movement”, angry parents have appeared at local school board meetings demanding they have things their way. Rowdy and abusive, these parents have accused school board members and staff of all kinds of (wildly untrue) things. You can watch a sampling of the vitriol our Great Falls School Board experienced during a special meeting in August 2021 here. Pushing conspiracy theories about masks, the books kids are using, and demanding that history classes teach only things they agree with, these parents repeat talking points directly taken from national far-right organizations.
As school elections approached, they began filing for open seats on school boards across the state. By and large these candidates toned down their far-right rhetoric attempting to present a friendly face to the electorate. So how did they do in the elections? Turns out not very well at all. (A summary of key school elections can be found here: https://montanafreepress.org/2022/05/04/montana-school-election-results/)
What the Funk Happened in our School Board Race?
Well, the Great Falls Public School Board Trustees are in! Drum roll please.
Incumbents Gordon Johnson, and Mark Finnicum retained their 3-year seats. Paige Turoski nabbed the last 3-year slot. And Amie Thompson earned the 1-year slot.
What a rollercoaster ride of an election! Paige Turoski was the only right-wing and GOP-endorsed candidate to win in a race that had 11 candidates vying for four seats. In a climate doused with sheer absurdity, we must celebrate our victories where we can. The elections of Johnson, Finnicum, and Thompson are major wins for our schools, faculty, and kids!
We have faith our trustees will continue to do right by our students and staff. Hopefully Ms. Turoski will gain more awareness when removed from her right wing echo chamber and instead surrounded by reasonable, logical adults. We’re thrilled to see Great Falls voted for more moderate voices on the board. After all, local elections are nonpartisan for a reason.
Unofficial results for the races are listed below.
Three-year terms
- Gordon Johnson – 6,737 votes
- Mark Finnicum – 6,276 votes
- Paige Turoski – 5,795 votes
- Brian Cayko – 5,614 votes
- Nathan Rieff – 5,057 votes
- Rodney Meyers – 3,904 votes
- Michael Nagel – 2,623 votes
One-year term
- Amie Thompson – 4,035 votes
- Scott Jablonski – 3,100 votes
- Russell Herring – 3,089 votes
- Caitlyn Nash – 1,011 votes
- Brad Anderson – 956 votes
by Helena Lovick | May 5, 2022 | Abortions Rights, Elections
After the leaked draft Supreme Court decision overthrowing Roe v. Wade, you might be thinking, “What the hell can I do? My country hates people with uteruses and doesn’t want us to have control over our own bodies!” And…you’re not wrong. We give corpses more bodily autonomy than a post-Roe America.
As we continue to protest and put pressure on our elected officials, local politics are our greatest hope to keep abortion legal in Montana. But only if we vote for an entirely NEW slate of representatives.
What the Funk have current Great Falls Elected Representatives been doing to strip away our fundamental human rights?
Surprised Pikachu face, every single Republican legislator from Great Falls voted for a variety of anti-choice bills in 2021!
Let’s start with the poster child for forced-birth, Representative Lola Sheldon-Galloway. You might recognize Lola from her bench ads and posters with the acronym for Lola of “Leave Our Liberties Alone.” Bitterly ironic when Lola is coming to trample all over your right to make private medical decisions. Rep. Sheldon-Galloway has supported many anti-choice bills during her multiple stints in the legislature. In 2021, she giddily sponsored HB 136 to prohibits abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Your pregnancy is nonviable? Too bad, mama. You still have to remain pregnant, Mx. Incubator! Goody for us, HB 136 was signed into law by Governor Gianforte.
We’d be remiss to not mention one bill that didn’t get passed but is a telling roadmap of things to come. Representative Gillette (R-Bozeman) ultimately withdrew HB 209, which sought to give parental rights to rapists. Public outrage caused Gillette to backpedal, but the ideology remains the same – people with uteruses are incubators, not worthy of bodily autonomy.
What other anti-choice bills were passed in the 2021 session of the Montana Legislature thanks to our Republican governor?
HB 171 – A bill that adds substantial bureaucracy for people seeking a medication-induced abortion. These barriers make it harder for a woman to terminate in the first trimester. This is BY DESIGN. Make it hard to get a medication abortion, and then poof! You’re at 20 weeks and now your abortion is illegal.
And to round it off, HB 140. A bill with no provisions for victims of rape or incest, that requires medical providers to offer patients an active ultrasound with image and sound. The bill also requires the patient to sign a form saying they were offered said ultrasound and answer whether they chose to view it.
Every Republican legislator from Great Falls voted for the three anti-choice bills that were signed into law. Every. Single. One.
- Fred Anderson (HD-20)
- Ed Buttrey (HD-21)
- Brian Hoven (SD-13)
- Steve Fitzpatrick (SD-10)
- Steve Galloway (HD-24)
- Steve Gist (HD-25)
- Scot Kerns (HD-23)
- Wendy McKamey (HD-19)
- Lola Sheldon-Galloway (HD-22)
- Jeremy Trebas (HD-26)
These legislators are extremists who vote to take away people’s fundamental human rights. We have to combat the fall of Roe and it starts here at the State Legislature level. Our lives depend on it.
