by Michael J. Marino
Controversy has ignited among many doctors across Montana after the Secretary of State’s (SOS) office sent out their traditional Voter Information Pamphlet earlier this month. Their trouble, specifically, is with some of the information relating to Legislative Referendum No. 131 (LR-131), or the “Born-Alive Infant Protection Act.”
If passed, the proposed act would define a “born-alive infant” as one “who breathes, has a beating heart, or has definite movement of voluntary muscles,” after being fully separated from the mother’s womb, according to the act’s official text. LR-131 would require doctors to “take all medically appropriate and reasonable actions to preserve the life and health of the infant.”
The act also seeks to charge doctors with a felony offense if they “knowingly, willingly or negligently violate” the proposed provisions of LR-131 and incarcerate them for up to 20 years.
On Monday, Oct. 18, attorneys with Upper Seven Law, representing a group of Montana healthcare workers, issued a press release which alleges the Pamphlet includes “unequivocally false statements” made by proponents of LR-131.
Dr. Patricia Notario, a Billings pediatrician, told YCN in an interview Tuesday morning that proponents of LR-131 claim the law would not apply to “certain kinds of delivery, for example, if a woman’s water breaks at 20 weeks,” but she said, “that’s actually not true.” LR-131 would apply across the board, said Notario, and the official language of the act does not define any specific types of birth.
“I think that’s important for voters to know,” she added.
Dr. Notario also feels that supporters of LR-131 may believe it is an anti-abortion bill, but this too, is a fallacy from her perspective. She described it as “an anti- parents’ right to determine the needs of their infant” bill that would “criminalize the practice of medicine.”
Other opponents of the act share similar sentiments, like Rep. Kathy Kelker, who stated it, “denies physicians the ability to provide care that is necessary, compassionate, and appropriate to an individual[‘s]… circumstance.”
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