Planned Parenthood leader vows to fight against efforts to limit abortion in Montana

KALISPELL, MONT. — The Supreme Court on Friday revoked the constitutional right to an abortion that has been in place for half a century, overturning Roe v. Wade on a 5-4 vote. While abortions remain legal in the state of Montana, providers in the Treasure State are worried about the fallout.

“We will end up in a country where we have this patchwork of states where access to abortion is available and states where it's not, and you know, already I can see the chaos that is beginning to happen,” said Planned Parenthood President and CEO Martha Fuller.

Fuller says it’s common to have residents from neighboring states come to Montana, to access Planned Parenthood's services, but now those individuals will be coming from farther away.

“I expect to we're probably going to see more patients coming into Montana, not necessarily from our neighboring states, which were already pretty low access places, but from further afield,” said Fuller. “We anticipate that we will be seeing, over the next coming days, weeks, months, additional patients from outside of Montana.”

With an expected influx of new patients, Fuller says safety for any new patient is a top priority, as the discourse around abortion will only intensify due to the Supreme Court's ruling.

“This is going to build an intensity, so this Supreme Court decision doesn't relieve the intensity around the discourse around abortion, but I think it elevates it. And quite frankly, our patients have long been targeted by folks who are protesting outside of health centers,” said Fuller.

Fuller doesn’t plan on backing down anytime soon.

“We will continue to see challenges come out of the legislature that seek to diminish the right to access abortion in the state of Montana. And it's really important to me that, for our patients at Planned Parenthood of Montana, we fight those bans and those attempts to restrict in any way possible,” said Fuller.