Montanans waking up to the news about Kansas:

State government control of your reproductive health care is *also* on the ballot here in November.

In at least three separate ways, actually. 🧵

#mtpol #mtnews
First: if Rs pick up two seats in the legislature, they'd have a supermajority.

A supermajority can place initiatives on the ballot to directly amend our Constitution and exclude abortion care from the right to privacy. They could even call a new constitutional convention.
Second: our Supreme Court affirmed in 1999 (Armstrong) that Montana's constitutional right to privacy includes abortion care.

PSC chair Jim Brown is running against current justice Ingrid Gustafson for the Supreme Court, and if elected would choose not to uphold that precedent.
Third - there is a "born alive" initiative on the ballot in November, LR-131.

It purports to be about abortion care, but its *main* effect would be to force parents undergoing late miscarriage or other pregnancy complications to have their infants resuscitated at delivery.
To be clear, Montana law *already* makes it a felony to "purposely, knowingly or negligently" cause the death of any viable infant (meaning, any baby able to survive outside of the womb, even with artificial assistance in a NICU) -- which is as early as 22-23 weeks gestation.
LR-131 criminalizes doctors and nurses (with up to 20 years in jail!) for not acting to "preserve the life and health" of an infant -- even if born far too early to survive.

In tragic cases like this, we usually wrap the baby for parents to hold for their last moments together.
I can't tell you how appalling it would feel to forcibly cause pain to a pre-viable infant who has zero chance at survival.

Resuscitation - breathing tubes, IVs, chest compressions - is not kind, nor ethical.
My neonatology colleagues are appalled by this. One tells me she would go to jail if that's what it meant.

LR-131 = what happens when people pursue their extreme beliefs about abortion without knowing or caring about the many complications that can befall a pregnancy.
So, yeah, voting matters. Especially this November.

Vote for Democratic legislators.
Vote to retain Ingrid Gustafson for Supreme Court.
Vote no on LR-131.

👆These are the votes that let you do your own health care decision-making.

Spread the word. #mtpol #ReproductiveFreedom

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More from @DrLaurenWilson

Sep 13, 2021
Starting a list of Montana schools that have had to close or go virtual in the setting of increasing COVID infections in students and staff. Feel free to add. #mtnews 👇
Montforton, masks optional, Sept 2.
bozemandailychronicle.com/news/education…
Plains High School, masks optional, Sept 13.
kulr8.com/regional/plain…
Read 16 tweets
Sep 2, 2021
On Tuesday @DPHHSMT wrote emergency orders citing "science" that masks don't work: a smattering of sources such as popular press, letters to the editor, articles they misread and - yes - tweets.

Might be time for a giant thread on the evidence behind masking? LET'S GOOOOO.
And by GIANT, I mean GIANT, because, well, there's a lot of evidence.

This is necessary context for when people throw out one-off colorful graphs of questionable provenance and saying, SEE?!? SEE?!?

I can't respond to all of that, if I had a zillion hours in the day.
Remember: Scientific consensus is built on more than a cut-and-paste list of articles. Trust experts who review ALL the evidence as it comes out, and tell you >>90% aligns. (Climate, anyone?)

Luckily, @KatieMLoveland dismantles the @DPHHSMT list here 👇

Read 25 tweets
Jan 13, 2021
Testimony today on HB 137, an effort to cancel ALL Montana communities' local ordinances on tobacco & vaping products. Setting the stage for our trend in youth vaping to continue. 30% of MT high schoolers currently vape.
I'm concerned about this. It seems to me like we should value our kids' health (and the long term health effects of tobacco use) over the health of this industry, and we're really not doing so in Montana.
A few facts on vaping. <5% of MT adults vape (versus 30% of kids). Many teens, per surveys, regard it as safe (it's not). Most cite the sweet flavors as a major factor in starting, and teens who vape are four times more likely to go on to smoke cigarettes too.
Read 5 tweets
Jan 10, 2021
It's Sunday, you're on Twitter. I'm pretty sure you have 5 minutes. Can you use those 5 min to speak up for our #transgender Montanans, who are targeted by 2 harmful and discriminatory bills, being heard Wednesday?
HB 113 would fine health care providers up to $50k for providing gender affirming care (seriously, following our national guidelines on this would be ILLEGAL). Medical care for transgender youth is evidence-based & has been shown to reduce their very high risk of suicide by 70%.
HB 112 would prohibit trans athletes from playing sports according to their gender identity. NCAA & others have rules & criteria allowing this, but MT wants a blanket ban to keep kids off teams for good. Trans kids are kids too, and deserve the health benefits of sports.
Read 7 tweets

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