Helena, MT—after this year's election, the Montana state legislature is dominated by extreme anti-choice politicians, according to numbers gathered by NARAL Pro-Choice Montana.

"With the incoming legislature women's reproductive rights in our state are extremely vulnerable. Montana's values of freedom and privacy now are under threat like never before.

Even with pro-choice Governor Steve Bullock willing to veto anti-choice legislation, we will have to work hard to stop a veto override,” said Julianna Crowley, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Montana.

After yesterday's election, NARAL Pro-Choice Montana counted 17 fully pro-choice state senators, 4 mixed-choice, and 29 anti-choice.

The trend in the House is slightly similar—with 28 fully pro-choice representatives down from the current number 30, 61 anti-choice representatives now have seats in the state House. There are 3 mixed-choice representatives, and 8 whose positions are unknown. NARAL Pro-Choice Montana determines candidates' positions on reproductive rights by looking at past voting records and responses to NARAL Pro-Choice Montana's questionnaires and interviews. Also used for consideration are candidates' public statements relating to positions on choice.

"Many of these candidates may have claimed they support limited government. But as we saw in the 2011 legislature, we know that 65 of the state's incumbents will do just the opposite when it comes to reproductive rights," said Julianna Crowley.

NPCM already knows these politicians' agenda is to insert the government into decisions that belong between women and their families. Some would go as far as to outlaw abortion—even in cases of rape and incest—and ban common forms of birth control. In the 2011 legislative session, twelve anti-choice bills were introduced; five passed. Thankfully, then-Governor Brian Schweitzer vetoed all five, but looking at this new legislative landscape, we can't know how far they will go.

This new legislature almost assuredly will make attempts to restrict comprehensive sex education for our state's young women. They want to impose a laundry list of excessively burdensome hurdles on women seeking abortion care, making it all but impossible to access. They even would take away the private insurance coverage for abortion that women already have and pay for, making it unaffordable for many.

This new legislature is even poised to eviscerate our state's constitution to eliminate the right to privacy—a protection Montanans hold most dear.

"Anti-choice politicians have been very clear that they will put ideology before women's health and lodge attack after attack on our access to health care in Montana. But make no mistake: the results of these elections do not mean the public supports anti-choice policies. On the contrary, people in Montana are overwhelmingly pro-choice. Pushing extreme anti-choice policies will not distract our state's voters from the pressing issues facing families in Montana. The newly elected officials need to know that pro-choice voters will be watching, and will be loud and clear that we want the government out of our personal, private medical decisions,” said Julianna Crowley.

NARAL Pro-Choice Montana will launch activists across the state and work with our pro-choice champions in the legislature to make sure these anti-choice politicians know that their attacks on a woman's right to choose won't go unchecked.