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Committee hears passionate testimony as Republican sponsor seeks criminal penalties for out‑of‑state abortions
Summary
Representative Keri Seakins Crowe presented House Bill 609 to the Judiciary Committee as a measure to criminalize certain transfers of pregnant people for out‑of‑state abortions and to penalize aiding minors or coercion.
Representative Keri Seakins Crowe opened the hearing on House Bill 609 by framing the proposal as a response to what she described as an "unregulated abortion industry" and an effort to stop "abortion trafficking" — defined in the bill draft as facilitating travel for a pregnant person to receive an abortion outside Montana in ways that circumvent state law, with specific criminal penalties for hosts or facilitators in some circumstances.
Sponsor's framing: Representative Keri Seakins Crowe called the measure a narrow public‑safety and family‑protection law aimed at stopping transport of minors and coerced or nonconsenting patients across state lines for an abortion without parental knowledge or other legal safeguards; she characterized certain out‑of‑state arrangements as "profit over protection."
Why it matters: Testimony showed deep disagreement about whether the bill is a…
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