Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has vetoed a bill expanding access to birth control.

The bill, which passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in the state legislature, would have required insurance companies to cover up to a year’s supply of birth control at once.

It had been designed to improve access in rural communities where medical resources are scarce.

Dunleavy’s veto stunned policymakers, especially given the legislative backing the bill had received by his fellow Republicans.

HB 17 passed with overwhelming support in a 29-11 vote in the Republican-controlled House and a 16-3 vote in the Senate, led by a bipartisan coalition.

This news arrives on the same day as separate legal development with contrasting consequences, where a Superior Court judge struck down a decades-old law restricting who can perform abortions.

Women in Alaska often have to travel long distances for reproductive care.

Proponents argue that the bill would help ensure access to contraception in Alaska’s more dispersed locales, which are often only accessible by plane or boat.

There are only four Planned Parenthood clinics in the country’s largest state by land area.

The Governor’s office defended the veto, stating that birth control is already “widely available” and that compelling insurance companies to offer a full year’s supply is “bad policy.”

His spokesperson, Jeff Turner, emphasized that the governor believed current access to contraceptives in the state is adequate.

Democratic State Rep. Ashley Carrick, who sponsored the bill, expressed disappointment, calling the veto “deeply disappointing” and saying it continues to leave significant barriers for rural residents.

“There is simply no justifiable reason to veto a bill that would ensure every person in Alaska, no matter where they live, has access to essential medication, like birth control,” she added.

Newsweek has contacted Gov. Dunleavy’s office for comment.

On the same day, Alaska Superior Court Judge Josie Garton struck down a long-standing law that required only doctors licensed by the state medical board to perform abortions.

Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky sued over the law in 2019, saying advanced practice clinicians—which include advanced practice registered nurses and physician assistants—should also be allowed to perform medication or aspiration abortions.

Judge Garton found the law unconstitutional, ruling that it violated patients’ rights to privacy and equal protection under Alaska’s state constitution.

Garton noted that the restrictions placed undue burdens on low-income residents and those in isolated areas, who often face significant challenges in accessing abortion services.

In her ruling, Garton emphasized that there was “no medical reason” for abortion to be regulated more strictly than other forms of reproductive health care.

This will serve to expand the pool of health care providers who can perform abortion services in Alaska.

This article includes reporting from The Associated Press

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – A federal prisoner in New York, Eric Hafner — who is not an Alaska resident — will face incumbent Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola, Republican Nick Begich and Alaska Independence Party candidate John Wayne Howe in the November race for Alaska’s lone congressional seat.

Hafner, who is running in Alaska as a Democrat, was sentenced to 20 years in 2023 for “making threatening telephone and email communications to New Jersey state officials, judges, law enforcement officers, and attorneys, and phoning in false bomb threats to local and state government offices, a police department, two law firms, and a commercial establishment” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of New Jersey.

At the time of his sentencing, Hafner was a New Jersey resident.

According to his Alaska candidacy statement, Hafner said he is running for Alaska’s congressional seat because Alaska is at the forefront of the “environment crisis” that he claims is “now manifesting its wrath in the Lower 48-our universities.”

“Our resources like ANWR are precious, not for short term exploitation,” Hafner states. “Together we must unite in our goal, bringing communities together in problem solving, finding viable solutions for the good of all, not immediate greed.”

Alaska Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher cited the U.S. Constitution as the reason Hefner, a convicted felon, is able to run in Alaska.

“Eric Hafner is not an Alaska resident,” Beecher confirmed in a statement to Alaska’s News Source. “The U.S. Constitution, Article 1, Section 2, Clause 2 allows that a candidate for congress does not have to be a resident of the state for which they are running for a U.S. congressional seat, but they must become a resident once elected.

“In Eric Hafner’s case, if elected, he would have to become a resident.”

Alaska has residency requirements preceding filing for state offices but is unable to for U.S. Senate and Representative seats.

“States are not able to add to the constitutional requirements,” Beecher said.

The U.S. Constitution only has specific requirements for age (25 years) and U.S. citizenship (7 years).

Hafner, who has a South Dakota residence, has a history of filing for congressional seats in states where he does not reside.

In 2018, he filed for Oregon’s U.S. House seat as a Democrat, and in 2016, as a Republican, he ran for Hawaii’s congressional seat.

In both instances, he lost in the primary.

His mother, Carol Hafner, has done the same, running in Wyoming in 2020 and Alaska in 2018.

Carol Hafner did not respond to comment on why she and her son run for congressional seats in states where they do not live.

According to Hafner’s Oregon candidate filing, he has identified himself as an ANTIFA & Black Lives Matter activist, a Union organizer, and an ordained Rastafari minister.

Under Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system, the top four primary finishers advance to November’s general election.

With both third- and fourth-place finishers — Republican Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom and Republican Matthew Salisbury — dropping out of the race, Hafner and Howe advanced, even with less than 1% of the primary vote.

In a statement to Alaska’s News Source Rep. Peltola showed dismay of the situation.

“I think, like all Alaskans, I’m offended that someone from out-of-state who has never even stepped foot in Alaska thinks they can represent Alaska,” Peltola said. “I’m confident Alaskans will see through this gimmick and vote for someone who was born and raised in Alaska, gets Alaska, and has helped DC get Alaska with real results: Willow, hundreds of millions of dollars for the railbelt grid, a ban on Russian trawled fish, and 80% reduction in chum bycatch, an icebreaker for the Southeast, billions of dollars for rural internet, and a pause to the Kroger-Albertsons merger.”

Unlike Hafner, Fairbanks resident Howe’s candidate filing said he is a 45-year Alaska resident who presents himself as an anti-tax and anti-government candidate. Howe said he wants to return Alaska to its existence before statehood.

“The vote for statehood was missing the options of being a Commonwealth or becoming a free nation,” Howe said.

“The Feds are an oppressing master, the State is a mere puppet, most local governments are just less oppressive fiefdoms. All the land belongs to Alaskans. All the fish belongs to Alaskans. All the Oil belongs to Alaskans. No Alaskan belongs to anyone. We must be Free. I will work to free the Nation State of Alaska.”

Hafner and Begich have not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.

The general election is on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024.

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A bill adding more Indigenous languages to Alaska’s official list became law on Friday without the governor’s signature. 

Its passage means Alaska now officially recognizes 23 Alaska Native languages. The new additions to the list are Cup’ig, Middle Tanana, Lower Tanana and Wetał. Middle and Lower Tanana were previously classified as just one language.

Juneau Rep. Andi Story sponsored the bill. She’s a Democrat running uncontested for reelection this year.

Story said it’s a significant win for all residents in the state. 

“I just think it enriches all of us, Native and non-native, to know about our language and culture and embrace it,” she said. 

The law expands and renames a council that advocates for the survival and revitalization of Indigenous languages in the state. Previously called the Alaska Native Language Preservation and Advisory Council, it’s now called the Council for Alaska Native Language. 

The majority of the state’s Indigenous languages are critically endangered. And, in a report released this spring, the council stated that Alaska Native languages are at a “crucial juncture.”

X̱ʼunei Lance Twitchell chairs the council and teaches Alaska Native languages at the University of Alaska Southeast in Juneau. He strongly advocated in favor of the bill during legislative testimony earlier this year.

“Every single Alaska Native language is sacred and irreplaceable,” he said during his testimony. “It contains concepts that cannot be translated, it contains things that cannot be replaced, and that give a sense of fulfillment and wholeness and health to Alaska Natives and to non-natives in Alaska.”

Two seats will be added to the council and it will be moved from the Department of Commerce to the Department of Education and Early Development to better reflect the council’s focus on education.