HELENA — The U.S. Supreme Court has announced it won’t hear an appeal from the state of Montana, attempting to revive a state law that would have required parental consent before a minor could get an abortion.
On Thursday, the court officially denied a request from Attorney General Austin Knudsen to consider Montana’s Parental Consent for Abortion Act. That means the Montana Supreme Court’s decision to invalidate the law will remain in place.
The 2013 law prohibited anyone under 18 from getting an abortion without notarized written consent from their parent or legal guardian. Exceptions would have been allowed in a medical emergency or if a minor successfully petitioned a court to waive the requirement.
Planned Parenthood of Montana challenged the law in court, and it never went into effect. The ensuing legal battle dragged out for more than a decade.
In March 2024, the Montana Supreme Court finally heard legal arguments in the case. Five months later, justices struck down the law, siding with plaintiffs who argued the consent requirement infringed on the right of privacy in the Montana Constitution.
Knudsen asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case, arguing that “a parent’s fundamental right to direct the care and custody of his or her children” should include a right to know and be involved in the child’s medical care – including whether they receive an abortion.
The U.S. Supreme Court typically doesn’t comment when refusing to accept a case. This time, however, conservative justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas released a statement, saying they accepted the decision not to take the case but wanted to clarify that they were not making a decision on Knudsen’s argument. Alito, who wrote the statement, said Knudsen and the Montana Supreme Court both referred to federal constitutional rights, but that neither the state’s argument nor the judges’ ruling was specifically based on federal questions.
“[B]ecause of the way this case was litigated below, it provides a poor vehicle for deciding that question,” Alito wrote. “It is therefore especially important that the denial of review is not read by interested parties or other courts as a rejection of the argument that the petition asks us to decide.”
Emilee Cantrell, a spokesperson for Knudsen, referred to that statement in a response to MTN Friday.
“We're disappointed in the Supreme Court's decision not to hear the case,” she said. “However, as Justices Thomas and Alito made clear today, this issue has not been settled by the courts and the legal battle is far from over. Attorney General Knudsen will not waver in his support of parents' longstanding and fundamental right to direct the care and upbringing of their children.”
Planned Parenthood of Montana also released a statement to MTN from president and CEO Martha Fuller.
“Every Montanan has a fundamental right to privacy, and deserves the ability to control their own bodies and futures,” said Fuller. “Montana courts, including the State Supreme Court, have affirmed the constitutional right to privacy, and Planned Parenthood of Montana will always do whatever we can to ensure that medical privacy and safe abortion access remain protected for Montanans and families.”
