SB 518 was one of two parental rights bills heard Monday morning in the Senate Judiciary Committee, the other coming from Rep. Kerri Seekins-Crowe, R-Billings. The committee also heard Seekins-Crowe’s bill that was the legislature’s second attempt at passing Legislative Referendum 131, which failed at the ballot box last fall, with new language that a parent could reject medical care for an infant not expected to survive; as well as a bill from Rep. Brandon Ler, R- Savage, to permit misgendering of transgender children in school.
The Montana Legislature is now well into the second half of its 68th session, and lawmakers are starting to take a closer look at proposals to amend the state constitution.
When the Republican Party took a 102-seat supermajority in the Legislature last year, it gave them the power to propose changes to the Montana Constitution without support from Democrats.