Montana judge rules teen birth control coverage ban unconstitutional [View all]
Source: Missoulian.com {Montana}
HELENA – A Helena district judge has declared unconstitutional the state’s ban on prescription birth control
coverage for teenage girls covered under the state’s health insurance program for low-income people.
District Judge James Reynolds concluded that the state contraceptive ban for teenage girls in the Healthy Montana
Kids Program “violates the right of privacy and the rights of persons not adults set forth in the Montana Constitution.”
The Healthy Montana Kids program, formerly known as the Children’s Health Insurance Program,
insures children with family incomes up 250 percent of the federal poverty level.
“The state has failed to provide a compelling state reason for this exclusion and has failed to show how
this exclusion enhances the rights of persons not adults,” Reynolds said. “Rather, as the court determined
and as the state itself declared: reducing teenage pregnancy (is) a compelling state interest.”
Read more: http://missoulian.com/news/local/montana-judge-rules-teen-birth-control-coverage-ban-unconstitutional/article_8f07b27e-9a1a-11e1-8e03-001a4bcf887a.html
reducing teenage pregnancy (is) a compelling state interest.
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