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.
The Great Falls Public Schools (GFPS) are holding a school trustee election on May 3rd and it is shaping up to be a bigoted, partisan mess.
Historically, the Great Falls Public School Board elections have had non-partisan candidates with a strong public education background. That’s not the case this year. It seems the last few years of polarizing politics have infected the Great Falls’ school board race. We now have a slate of far-right, partisan candidates who have stepped forward to run. And they are campaigning hard.
What the Funk is Happening With the School Board Election?
The local right-wing attacks on school boards are part of a nationwide, conservative movement to take over local government. Historically, political parties have made an effort to limit endorsements in non-partisan races like school boards, judicial systems, and city government. Ignoring this precedent, Cascade County GOP is pushing heavily for their preferred candidates in all of these areas. In the Great Falls School Board election, a crop of far-right school board candidates have been endorsed by the Cascade County Republicans PAC. The PAC is an ultra-conservative break-off group of Republicans so extreme that moderate Cascade County Republicans have distanced themselves from the group [The PAC also likes to do campaign finance violations from time to time…]
WTF 406 did a little research into the positions of the GOP-endorsed candidates:
The right-wing candidates are led by out-spoken homophobe, Brian Cayko. Brian wants people to pronounce his name correctly so badly that he boosted Facebook ads, stressing that his name is pronounced “psycho.” Yes, he really did. Aside from his questionable priorities regarding campaign messaging, Brian has been openly vocal about his anti-LGBTQ sentiments. He has commented online that LGBTQ-friendly schools promote “destructive physical and mental health. Most importantly that is immoral in the eyes of God.” Brian submitted a lengthy, bigoted rant against LGBTQ+ community members as he urged our city commission to vote against a proposed non-discrimination ordinance. With that hate-filled perspective, how is Brian going to support our LGBTQ+ students and staff?
Paige Turoski previously ran for the Great Falls City Commission and she thinks taxation is theft. It’ll be interesting to see how Paige thinks our schools are funded.
Scott Jablonski thinks masks are unconstitutional. Rodney Meyers wants to insert partisan politics so badly into a non-partisan race, that he sought the endorsement of Republican Lieutenant Governor Juras.
These ultra-conservative candidates would jeopardize the ability of the school board to function and serve our children well. It’s not surprising that the Great Falls Education Association (GFEA) didn’t endorse any of the candidates on the GOP slate. Our teachers’ union knows what works best to support our students as we strive to recover from the impacts of the pandemic. The GFEA endorsed the three incumbent candidates (Mark Finnicum, Gordon Johnson, and Nathan Reiff), along with Russell Herring for the additional one-year term. Let’s keep partisan politics away from our kids and out of our schools.
