Tranel: Nov. 8 presents a consequential choice

Many of us have faced that intense moment, clutching a pregnancy test and a timer, waiting, agonizing, bargaining for the result to be one line or two. For those facing a pregnancy they did not intend, or cannot carry, the moment can be one of terror.

For those with health conditions, either pre-existing or developing during a pregnancy, will attempting to carry the pregnancy to term be fatal?

For parents, is there enough money and space for another child?

For young people, timing matters. Will becoming a parent disrupt educational and career plans?

For all of us, that moment is deeply private. The freedom to choose how our lives will be shaped belongs to us alone. But in June 2022, the Supreme Court took away the fundamental freedom for people to decide our own fate.

Government officials now can force people to stay pregnant and to give birth, regardless of the circumstances they face.

The results are heartbreaking and morally reprehensible.

In Ohio, government officials told a 10-year-old child who was six weeks pregnant that she had to birth the child of her rapist.

In Louisiana, a woman and her husband were hoping to add another child to their family. But ten weeks into the pregnancy, their fetus developed acrania, a rare and fatal condition that prevents the baby’s skull from forming. If the pregnancy even made it to term, the newborn would die within minutes of birth. Doctors advised the family to obtain an abortion. But government officials mandated that this woman “carry my baby to bury my baby.” She and her husband called being forced to suffer this mental anguish “inhumane.”

In Texas, doctors refused to expel a woman’s miscarriage because Texas officials want no abortion procedure, even when it is for a non-viable fetus. The woman, who “lost the baby” says she feels like a “walking coffin.” Only if she develops sepsis and gets close to death will government officials permit doctors to provide standard medical care for a miscarriage—and this happens only if the doctors can medically intervene before she dies.

In Idaho, there is now a criminal ban on abortion, and even an ectopic pregnancy cannot be expelled until the mother is near death.

In Florida, as an example of how extreme a state can be when there is no longer a federal privacy right, at least four school districts will not let girls compete in high school sports unless they track their periods in an app that school officials and prosecutors have access to.

After claiming abortion was about “states’ rights,” Republican Senators–including Steve Daines–hypocritically and shamelessly proposed a national ban on abortions that will make the heartwrenching experiences in the five states described above the new reality across Montana and across America.

Ryan Zinke is trying to walk back his prior extreme positions by claiming he supports abortions in “dire circumstances.” But in Congress, when the up or down vote on a national abortion ban is called, he must choose. We know Zinke will vote for his party and against us.

But you can count on me to always work for Montanans’ right to live life on our own terms and decide how, when, and whether to become parents.

In Congress, I will work to protect our privacy and our freedom, and will pass laws so that those who are pregnant will be the only ones to decide what course their life will take.

On Nov. 8, we will make a consequential decision on the direction we take our lives. Join me, so we can secure privacy, freedom, and liberty for all.

Monica Tranel is running for Congress for Montana’s newly apportioned MT01 congressional seat. She’s an attorney, a two-time Olympian, the middle of 10 siblings, and a mother to three daughters.