Is it Really, “Your Body, Your Choice”?

The “your body, your choice” crowd is once again working to relieve you of your paycheck and use your hard-earned money to pay for lobbying, abortions, and transgender “treatment.” Although the Hyde Amendment is supposed to prevent our tax dollars from funding abortions, there is a loophole via Medicaid, which does pay for abortions in Montana. We are one of a couple dozen states with that dubious distinction. Is it really “your choice” if you are required to pay for someone else’s abortion via taxpayer-funded Medicaid?

On the national level, a Supreme Court case dealing with this very issue is scheduled to be heard on April 2 in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, which is believed to be the lead case in paving the way to disentangling our annual $700-million-dollar-funding of Planned Parenthood. The abortion giant receives this funding from a combination of government contracts, grants, and Medicaid reimbursements. This week, Montanans for Life joined 150 pro-life leaders who signed a letter to Congress, urging them to stop funneling almost two million taxpayer dollars per day to Planned Parenthood. Much of that money is spent on abortions and lobbying for more abortions. The abortion magnate wants you to pay for everyone else’s abortions through taxpayer funded Medicaid—and you have no choice in the matter. 

This week, pro-lifers across the country are marching, holding prayer vigils, and visiting their congressmen en masse to get the message across; we do not want to be forced to pay for other people’s abortions and trans surgeries. By and large, polling indicates that most people who support abortion even agree with this one. It is the abortion industry itself, rolling in dough, that sees you and I as a viable source of funding. 

A recent headline decrying the need for more funding and staffing in the liberal New York Times says, “The health care provider ​of last resort is working to shore up affiliate clinics that are in dire financial straits. Patients report failed abortions, misplaced IUDs and inadequately trained staff.” Last resort, indeed! Who wants “care” from an industry hyper-focused on death, which pays their massive bank of lobbyists astronomically to push back against any and all basic reporting and sanitation requirements that—oh, say—a real healthcare provider would have? They want to be called “healthcare professionals,” but the ducking and weaving at the most simple hygiene requirements should be enough of a red flag to prevent any intelligent person from seeking their “services.”

Here in Montana, not a single one of our six abortion mills is an actually licensed healthcare facility—another fact their lobbyists do not want to fess up to. With the passage of CI-128 this past November, they commonly refer to their clinics in legislative hearings as providing “essential healthcare,” but squirm when asked if they are actually licensed. Again, we see rules for thee, but not for me.

While we are on the topic of abortion in Montana, let us not forget that this Medicaid funding of abortion was just on the Governor’s desk last week. Without the usual pomp and circumstance, the bill was quietly signed which will cost over three billion dollars to fund, disincentivize people from working, and massively increase the number and scope of abortions you and I pay for with our hard-earned, overly-taxed dollars. Ninety percent of that three billion dollars is currently funded federally. One question that came up during the hearing on this bill, which I think is noteworthy, was: “What happens if DOGE cuts this funding?” This question deserves a long, hard look. The short answer? You and I are on the hook for the balance—and again, we have no choice.

House Bill 245, “The Medicaid Expansion Bill,” passed without much fanfare. I wrote to Gov. Gianforte, as many of you did, asking him not to sign this monstrosity. His reply was quite vague, and not becoming of someone who is purportedly pro-life. No strong convictions against the killing of so many innocent pre-born Montanans were evident whatsoever in his letter, or his actions, as he quietly signed the bill into law. Note: the bills to protect women’s spaces were signed with much ado. My question to you, dear reader, is simple: why would a pro-life governor sign such a law into effect? What would motivate a self-proclaimed pro-life Governor—who has publicly donated to pro-life pregnancy centers and championed adoption—to sign this monstrosity? I will let the reader decide for him- or herself.

The bottom line is this: as long as our hard-earned money is siphoned off to pay for the killing of other people’s children, it is no longer “our choice.” Give Montanans their money back, and you give Montanans their choices back, plain and simple. We had quite the budget surplus last year, and yet our taxes are through the roof. Almost half of women who lost their children to abortion cite financial reasons as the cause. How about this: lower our taxes, eliminate mandatory payment for others’ abortions, and in doing so, create a more favorable financial environment for families to keep their children. Perhaps that is too fantastic a choice.