Letter to the Editor: Bozeman Deserves Better Than Abortion as “Healthcare”

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the MSU Exponent, its editorial staff, advisers, or Montana State University.

By: Katie L. Normand

Bozeman is growing so quickly that the announcement of a new clinic opening can almost sound routine. Advertisements promise access, convenience, and care, and most of us move on before asking what that really means. But, a “women’s health clinic” of this nature does more than fill an empty building. It shapes life altering, and life ending choices placed before people at vulnerable moments. It tells us something about the kind of community we are and the kind of people we've become.

That is why Planned Parenthood of Montana’s Bozeman clinic deserves a much closer look. 

As a mother, and a Bozeman resident, I am saddened by an organization that presents its arrival broadly as women’s health care while specifically announcing medication and in-clinic procedural abortions. Every person born, or unborn, bears, great dignity, including the frightened woman facing an unexpected pregnancy and the child growing within her. A compassionate community should not abandon either one but should be strong enough to love and support them both.

Bozeman is not without affordable women’s and reproductive health services. ZoeCare provides low cost and confidential pregnancy and reproductive health services, including pregnancy testing, limited OB ultrasounds, STI testing and information about pregnancy options. 

It also offers support through Mom2Mom mentoring, its Sweet Cheeks diaper program, life coaching, mental-health assistance and programs for expectant fathers. ZoeCare states that it does not provide or refer for abortions. Community Health Partners, another local provider, uses a sliding fee scale based on income and family size. MSU Student Health also provides students with reproductive health services on campus. Bozeman Health offers comprehensive gynecological, prenatal and postpartum care, with financial assistance options that include its Women’s Specialists Clinic. Bozeman can support health care for women without accepting abortion as a necessary cornerstone.

The clinic’s undisclosed address is suspicious. Planned Parenthood has not publicly released the exact location, saying it wants contractors to work without disruption. Its leadership has nevertheless described the site as centrally located, close to Montana State University, on a public-transit route and about 20 minutes from the airport. Whatever the stated concerns, a medical facility seeking community support should operate with full transparency. Placing an abortion provider near a campus full of young women deserves serious public scrutiny, not automatic celebration.

College students can face financial, academic and relationship pressure when pregnancy occurs. They deserve all of the information and real assistance, not a culture where abortion becomes the convenient answer when motherhood appears. Genuine choice requires honest, well-funded paths toward prenatal care, housing, childcare, adoption, parenting support and continuing education. If one option is promoted while life-affirming alternatives remain scattered or underfunded, the word ‘choice’ and the term ‘healthcare’ are simply a farce.

Planned Parenthood’s national reporting also complicates its health branding. The organization’s 2024–25 annual report lists 434,450 abortion services, compared with 7,685 prenatal services and 3,038 adoption referrals. The stark contrast between these services shows where abortion sits within the organization’s priorities. Planned Parenthood’s website also says that not every health center provides prenatal or postpartum services.

Montana recorded 2,070 induced abortions in 2024, including 1,729 medication abortions. These aren’t just numbers in a report, each one of these cases represents a woman whose circumstances deserved compassionate support and a pregnancy that would not result in a human being born alive.

Montana voters approved Constitutional Initiative 128, and abortion is protected under state law before viability. But legality does not settle morality and does not require Bozeman residents to welcome abortion as forward progress. We are free to question, persuade, organize, pray and advocate for something we know is better.

For Christians, we cannot stop with words. If we say women and children matter, we must prove it through practical love: meals, transportation, diapers, safe housing, mentoring, prenatal care, childcare, adoption support and friendship long after a baby is born. Women should never be shamed, threatened or abandoned. That has no place in this effort and would betray the dignity we claim to defend.

The announcement of Planned Parenthood’s arrival in our area presents us with a choice about the kind of community we want. We can measure progress by the availability of abortion services or we can build a community where no woman believes she must choose between her future and her child. Bozeman should choose life giving care, lasting support and hope for both mother and child.