Editor’s Note: This is part of a series of conversations about voter-initiated efforts to restore abortion access across the country.
The year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Montana’s Republican-majority legislature passed an array of bills restricting abortion. Though these laws were blocked by courts and abortion until fetal viability remains the law in Montana, reproductive rights activists say they no longer feel confident that their state constitution’s right to privacy will always protect their rights while pregnant.
Now Montana joins nine other states who this November will vote on whether to explicitly protect the right to terminate a pregnancy in their state’s constitution. Last week the secretary of state’s office approved and certified Constitutional Initiative 128, which according to the ballot language, would “provide a right to make and carry out decisions about one’s own pregnancy, including the right to abortion. It would prohibit the government from denying or burdening the right to abortion before fetal viability. It would also prohibit the government from denying or burdening access to an abortion when a treating healthcare professional determines it is medically indicated to protect the pregnant patient’s life or health.”
Kiersten Iwai is the executive director of Forward Montana, a progressive civic youth organization and one of four groups that make up Montana’s abortion-rights ballot initiative organizing coalition, Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights. The others include: ACLU Montana, Fairness Project, and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Montana.
Forward Montana focuses on young people and targets college campuses, which is where the group’s 32-year-old leader first got her start in reproductive rights organizing, though neither she nor her organization focuses exclusively on that issue. Iwai said the campaign to get abortion rights on the ballot this year also involved a Republican-led legal battle challenging the validity of infrequent voters’ signatures. After overcoming what she believes was an attempt to disenfranchise young voters, Iwai said the campaign is determined to secure enough votes in November.
The following interview has been edited and condensed.
States Newsroom: How did Forward Montana become part of the Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights coalition?
Kiersten Iwai: After the Dobbs decision, we saw this huge increase in young people really energized and passionate over abortion access and reproductive rights, and we knew that this wasn’t a fight that we could sit out. There had been discussions with state partners about what to do in this moment and how to move forward. And so we knew that this was something we absolutely wanted to be a part of.
SN: Is this your first time organizing around reproductive rights?
KI: No, it is not, but it is my first ballot measure. In college, I started organizing on reproductive rights, because I really strongly believe that our decisions around pregnancy and abortion are deeply personal and we should be in charge of those decisions. I was really energized in college. We produced the Vagina Monologues. We handed out condoms and wore silly costumes, facilitated panel discussions and things like that. And so that is really how I ultimately started into organizing. It was largely awareness and education. But then we would also, like, when Planned Parenthood services were being cut because of funding reasons, we put on I-support-Planned-Parenthood protest type of things.
SN: This was undergrad back in Oregon, where you’re from? What brought you to Montana?
KI: Yeah, so I got a job out here, and then absolutely fell in love with Montana. There’s the saying that Montana is one small town with really long roads. And the longer that I’ve been here, which is now over 10 years, that’s so true. People are really caring and also love Montana because of the access to public lands, because we have such incredible scenery. And also this general attitude that people really value their independence and their privacy and at the same time really care for their neighbors.
SN: What have you learned about Montanans or about your state from working on this ballot initiative campaign?
KI: I think Montana is generally viewed as a more conservative state, and running an abortion ballot measure might, you know – I feel like we’re probably an unlikely place. But it’s just such an issue that spans across the political spectrum, and Montanans really support abortion access here because of these values that we have around privacy and independence. And to see that come to life was really exciting, and something that I kind of knew but didn’t fully know until we were in the midst of collecting signatures.
SN: Do you have any examples of voters who signed the petition to get Montana’s abortion-rights amendment on the ballot who expressed conservative views?
KI: You know, we don’t register by political party in our state, so I think that kind of sets the tone; people don’t really identify with political parties as much in general. And so it doesn’t necessarily come out, but it is very clear through the way that they talk about abortion or what they might say, that they are supportive. For example, somebody who is, like, I grew up really religious, and so I’m a little nervous to sign this, but this means so much to me, and I think this is a really important time to decide.
SN: What is Forward Montana’s role in this campaign?
KI: We are a proud member of the campaign, helping strategize around the campaign’s direction and messaging and organizing tactics, as well as actually mobilizing young people to turn out for this initiative. … We’ll be out knocking on doors, we’ll have a really big campus program around this initiative, and really be clear that CI-128 is to protect abortion access in our state.
SN: Even though abortion is legal in Montana right now, how accessible is it?
KI: It is really limited. So for example, I live in Bozeman, which is one of Montana’s larger towns, and it is home to our largest public university, Montana State University, and there is no clinic in Bozeman. Our nearest clinic is probably in Helena, like, an hour 45 minutes away of Montana driving time. And so that’s a huge barrier to access. And that’s for me, who lives right in the middle of the state, along a major interstate in a pretty large town. But then you go to places in northwest Montana, central, very far eastern Montana, places, those communities have to travel hours and hundreds and hundreds of miles, which is a really big barrier to service.
SN: Are there any stories from Montanans needing abortion access that have moved you during this campaign?
KI: We received this letter from somebody that just really moved us all to tears, that was talking about their own story in which they didn’t have access to abortion and had to go through this really traumatic experience with a miscarriage. And then their own daughter also was in a similar situation and then had access to abortion and the kindest doctors, who were there to care and support her daughter. The contrast was really stark for this person, and really powerful. It really has highlighted for our team how intergenerational this campaign really is, and how there have been these incredible leaders before us who have fought for access decades ago, and here we are again. We really stand on their shoulders to try to really end the fight once and for all here in Montana. It’s those moments that make the campaign really real and palpable and tangible.
SN: And do you have a personal motivation that drives you to work on this campaign?
KI: As a young woman – and I think this applies for all young people – there’s a moment when you know somebody, or you yourself are going through, where you’re making that decision of, what do I do? Do I need an abortion? And you might have friends, or yourself, start to think about family planning and having babies, and how abortion care is also miscarriage care. It’s such a relatable experience that I think almost everyone shares and that doesn’t get talked about very often, because of stigma, and because it is also a personal and private decision. I just think it’s a lot more of a shared experience than I think people realize.
SN: What have been some of the hurdles throughout this campaign so far?
KI: It was a very long legal battle to get to the place where we could collect signatures, and then in the span of 10 weeks, we did. We achieved something that was absolutely incredible: 117,000 signatures from every corner of the state. We’re talking every county. So we’re talking about counties like Petroleum County, which is the eighth least populated county in the entire country, like, you know, a few hundred people.
We had signatures from voters who live in Petroleum County all the way to the major counties, like where I live in, and everywhere in between. And over 500 volunteers. And so it was really despite the very small but vocal minority who really intimidated and harassed signature gatherers that we were still able to in 10 weeks submit 117,000 signatures. And then the secretary of state tried to discount the signatures of inactive voters, who are infrequent voters and tend to be younger, and also younger voters who move around a lot. And so that was absolutely an attempt by the secretary of state to disenfranchise the voices of young voters, which we take very personal offense to. But ultimately it’s been certified, it will be on the ballot, and Montana voters, who are the people who should be making this decision for themselves, will be able to make their voice heard this November.
SN: Do you feel confident the amendment will pass?
KI: I am very confident that this will pass. This initiative is really about who’s in charge of our most deeply personal medical decisions around pregnancy and abortion: you or the government. And it’s just become increasingly clear that there are rights that we can’t take for granted, and especially rights that aren’t explicitly enumerated. It’s an active practice to fight and defend and protect those rights.
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