Montana
‘Personhood’ amendment advances, despite abortion rights initiative
House lawmakers on Wednesday voted to put a constitutional amendment before voters that would define “person” as “beginning at the stage of fertilization or conception.”
If passed in 2026, the proposal would likely conflict with CI-128, the constitutional abortion rights amendment approved in November. During a Tuesday debate on the measure, the sponsor of House Bill 316, Rep. Lee Deming, R-Laurel, said that he believed voters may have “some buyer’s remorse” about the recently passed measure.
“To be honest with you, I’m not sure that the people who voted on CI-128 really understood what they were voting for,” Deming said. “I want to give these people of Montana another opportunity.”
CI-128, which bars state government from restricting pre-viability abortions, passed by a 16 percentage point margin.
Deming’s proposed amendment will advance to the Senate for consideration but is unlikely to pass out of the Legislature. Constitutional amendments introduced by lawmakers must have the support of two-thirds of the entire branch, or 100 votes from the two chambers combined.
The House’s party-line vote Wednesday gave HB 316 the support of 58 Republican lawmakers. That number means that 42 out of 50 Senators would have to vote for the bill in order for it to pass, a high bar for a chamber with 18 Democrats.
The personhood amendment is one of the few abortion-related bills that have been introduced this session. Other efforts to curb medication abortion and prohibit abortion “trafficking” inside and outside of Montana’s borders failed to advance.
Two of those proposals were tabled in committee, in part because of concerns from Republican lawmakers about conflicts with CI-128. A separate bill failed to pass a vote on the Senate floor. Another measure to allow for paternity testing and child support payments during pregnancy, which also included language about life beginning at conception, also failed to advance out of committee.
Supporters of HB 316 have acknowledged that the measure runs counter to what voters expressed several months ago at the ballot box. But lawmakers who spoke in favor of the amendment on the House floor this week said it aligned with their deeply held beliefs about protecting fetal life. Several likened their commitment to the issue to the long fight for the abolition of slavery in the United States.
“In a few years or decades, I believe we will look back on the error of not recognizing personhood for babies. Please join me in voting yes on this bill and may history look favorably upon your vote today,” said Rep. Greg Overstreet, R-Stevensville.
Multiple Democrats and one Republican spoke against the measure on the floor. Some raised concerns about who would be able to assert the rights of a fetus, and whether the will of the state, an abusive partner or potential grandparents could hamstring the medical decisions of the pregnant person.
“I think that one of the serious unintended consequences of an initiative like this is that it creates a legal pathway for more of that sort of coercive control,” said Rep. SJ Howell, D-Missoula. “Control over a woman by somebody who does not have her best interests at heart.”
If it became part of the state Constitution, opponents said, the amendment could also interfere with the provision of birth control, miscarriage management and in vitro fertilization processes for people trying to become pregnant.
Members of the public who testified against the bill during its first hearing before the House Judiciary Committee in early February raised similar points. During that discussion and the recent floor debate, Deming acknowledged that the proposal would impact IVF access in Montana, a fertility treatment he said he would otherwise support if not for the disposal of unused embryos.
Proponents reiterated that the bill promoted more foundational values.
“We’re ignoring a basic truth that nobody seems to — everybody wants to seem to step around it,” said Rep. Zack Wirth, R-Wolf Creek. “Women give life. Men protect life. There’s no other truth more basic.”
Other opponents rebuked lawmakers for, in their eyes, disregarding what Montana voters decided in November.
“The voters have weighed this issue. They have voted. You didn’t like what they did, so now you, as the Legislature, are deciding you’re going to override their vote,” said Rep. Pete Elverum, D-Helena. “Just stop.”
Rep. Sherry Essmann, R-Billings, was the only Republican to vote against the measure Tuesday, citing her reluctance to further change the Montana Constitution with a contradictory amendment.
“We’re doing nothing but confusing our voters. We asked them last time if they were for or against abortion, and now we’re gonna give them even more confusing language that makes them wonder, ‘Well, now what does this mean?’”
During her questioning about the bill’s intent, Essmann asked Deming whether he thought Montana voters were not smart enough to understand what they were voting on last year. Deming said he thought the electorate was “plenty smart enough,” but suggested that voters may have been misled by some of the messaging by CI-128 proponents.
Essmann’s opposition did not hold for the bill’s final House vote. The measure passed on Wednesday 58-41. It has not yet been scheduled for a hearing in the Senate.
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Montana
Escobar, Jayapal, Members of Congress Call on Camp East Montana to be Shut Down – Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal
(Washington, D.C.) – Today, Congresswoman Veronica Escobar (TX-16) – joined by Representative Pramila Jayapal, the Ranking Member of the Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement Subcommittee, and 22 other Members of Congress – sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Todd Lyons calling for the immediate closure of Camp East Montana in El Paso. They cite urgent humanitarian concerns following multiple deaths in custody, documented unsafe conditions, and serious deficiencies in medical care.
This marks the fourth letter Congresswoman Escobar has sent to DHS and ICE leadership. The previous three letters have gone unanswered.
The letter can be found in its entirety below and here.
“Secretary Noem and Acting Director Lyons:
We are urgently calling on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS or the Department) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to shut down Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas.
Camp East Montana has been operational for six months, and at least three people have died at the site since December 2025: Francisco Gaspar-Andres, Geraldo Lunas Campos, and Victor Manuel Diaz. The El Paso County Medical Examiner has officially ruled Lunas Campos’ death a homicide, citing “asphyxia due to neck and torso compression.”
Camp East Montana was constructed in a matter of weeks and opened before construction was complete and it does not have enough federal staff on-site to provide adequate oversight. Over the last several months, Congresswoman Veronica Escobar, in whose district this facility is located, has sent multiple letters to DHS and ICE regarding concerns about the conditions at Camp East Montana, and has received no responses.
According to detainees, there have been constant and consistent problems at the facility since it opened, beginning with the facility’s poor construction and poor ambient temperature control. Upon opening, the drinking water at Camp East Montana tasted foul and made some detainees sick. Detainees continue to be served inadequate meals, including food that is rotten or frozen; last fall, the facility was also consistently failing to make dietary accommodations for detainees. Detainees have shared that they have sporadic access to outside spaces and recreational areas, and that their dormitory pods are cleaned only once every eight days, despite pods housing up to 72 people at a time. Laundry services are not consistent, and people are washing their clothes in the facility showers. Additionally, the facility experiences flooding and sewage backups when it rains, leading to stagnant water.
One of the biggest concerns with the Camp East Montana facility is the inadequate medical care being provided to detainees. Our offices have heard that only the most ill detainees are referred to the medical unit and that there are inconsistencies as to how soon after arriving detainees are able to undergo initial medical screenings. Detainees with chronic health issues who rely on regimented medications for their health have had difficulty accessing necessary medications, including blood pressure medication and insulin.
At least one of the deaths that occurred in ICE custody, the death of Francisco Gaspar-Andres, appears to partially be the result of poor medical care by staff at the facility. According to ICE’s own account, Gaspar-Andres sought medical attention from facility staff for increasingly serious symptoms, but was only transferred to an area hospital once his condition had severely deteriorated.
In addition to our concerns about poor medical care, we are also aware that detainees have experienced irregular access to their legal counsel, including instances of detainees having only two minutes allotted per phone call every 8 days, which is contrary to ICE’s Detention Standards on access to counsel, and that the belatedly created law library lacks adequate resources for the amount of people currently held at the facility. In January 2026, ICE announced the on-site death of Geraldo Lunas Campos “after experiencing medical distress.” ICE opened an investigation into the death, but did not provide a cause of death. However, The Washington Post later reported that another man detained at Camp East Montana had witnessed guards choking Lunas Campos when he refused to enter a segregated housing unit. Weeks later, the El Paso County Medical Examiner ruled that Lunas Campos had experienced “asphyxia due to neck and torso compression” and ruled his death a homicide.
Lunas Campos is the first detainee to die at Camp East Montana as a result of a use-of-force incident, but we are strongly concerned that he will not be the last if ICE is allowed to continue operating Camp East Montana.
ICE was given $45 billion in taxpayer dollars in the reconciliation bill, $1.2 billion of which were awarded to Acquisition Logistics, LLC, a company with no previous experience managing immigration detention facilities, to build and oversee Camp East Montana. However, in the wake of three deaths in custody so far, continued concerns about conditions at the facility, and ICE’s apparent disinterest in responding to oversight letters from Congress, we do not believe Camp East Montana is being run professionally or responsibly.
Camp East Montana must be shut down. For the safety of everyone at the facility, for an end to abuses to detainees, and for fiscal responsibility to the American people, the site cannot continue to operate. We are calling on DHS and ICE to move to immediately close operations at Camp East Montana.
We look forward to hearing from the Department promptly on this matter.
The other co-signers include Representatives Yassamin Ansari, Nanette Barragán, Yvette Clarke, Lloyd Doggett, Maxwell Frost, Jesús “Chuy” García, Sylvia Garcia, Daniel Goldman, Jimmy Gomez, Henry Johnson, Stephen Lynch, Seth Moulton, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Delia Ramirez, Andrea Salinas, Janice Schakowsky, Darren Soto, Rashida Tlaib, Paul Tonko, Lauren Underwood, Gabe Vasquez, and Nydia Velázquez.
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