Judge Asked To Invalidate Abortion Limits Those Restrictions, Struck Down By The Judge In 1993, Were Reimposed By The Legislature This Year

For the second time in less than a week, Montana abortion providers asked a federal judge Thursday to invalidate restrictions on abortion imposed this year by the state Legislature.

The plaintiffs asked U.S. District Judge Paul Hatfield in Great Falls to reopen a 1993 lawsuit that resulted in a permanent injunction against two abortion restrictions: that only physicians may perform abortions and that all second-trimester abortions must be performed in a hospital.

Those restrictions, struck down by Hatfield in 1993, were reimposed by the Legislature this year in House Bill 442, which was signed by Gov. Marc Racicot and is scheduled to take effect Oct. 1.

If Hatfield agrees to reopen the lawsuit, the plaintiffs said they will seek a court order preventing enforcement of the law.

“Blinded by their opposition to abortion, lawmakers enacted unconstitutional measures that should not be allowed to stand,” said Simon Heller, a staff attorney with the New York City-based Center for Reproductive Law and Policy.

The center is providing legal services to the plaintiffs in association with attorneys Turner Graybill of Great Falls and Bruce Measure of Kalispell.

Critics said that HB442 was aimed at Susan Cahill, a physician’s assistant in Kalispell who has been performing abortions for 18 years. Last fall an arson fire destroyed the doctor’s office where Cahill works and she was the subject of an unsuccessful lawsuit over her practice in 1993.

Cahill is a plaintiff in Thursday’s action.

When Racicot signed HB442 into law, he denied it targeted any individual and said that Montana is one of only two states, along with Vermont, that allow abortions to be performed by physicians’ assistants.

“My strong concern was to provide the highest level of safety for women when they undertake this serious medical procedure,” Racicot said.

The governor had no reaction to Thursday’s court filing, saying through an aide that he doesn’t comment on litigation before he has had a chance to review it.

Cahill and other plaintiffs in the Great Falls case - including Drs. Susan Wicklund of Bozeman, James Armstrong of Kalispell and Mark Miles of Great Falls - also are plaintiffs in a case filed last Friday in U.S. District Court in Billings, in which they seek to invalidate a requirement that a parent or guardian be notified before a girl under 18 can obtain an abortion.