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Independent voter Teri Seth: “Both CI-128 and re-electing Tester [are] important in this election” 

BILLINGS – Last week, third-generation dirt farmer and U.S. Senator Jon Tester rallied for reproductive freedom in Bozeman alongside Planned Parenthood Action Fund President and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson. 

Jon and Alexis spoke to a “crowd of several hundred who were waving Tester signs” about how reproductive freedom is at stake in this election, and how Jon will always stand up for a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body and health care. 

Read more below:

Daily Montanan: Tester, Planned Parenthood leader rally in Bozeman for reproductive freedom

By Darrell Ehrlick

September 6, 2024

• The leader of America’s most recognizable reproductive rights organization is in Montana campaigning for an initiative to enshrine the right to an abortion in the state constitution, but she has a message for the Treasure State.
• “We’re here for freedom so we can decide on abortion, and we want to send Jon Tester back to the Senate so that he can do that for all of us,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, the CEO of Planned Parenthood, calling Tester one of the smartest, sharpest thought-partners in the fight for reproductive freedom. “We are so proud of him, and we know he is an effective bipartisan leader. We’re going to work like hell to send Jon Tester back to the Senate.”
• Tester campaign staff held the event in the literal backyard of his opponent. Sheehy is a Bozeman-based businessman who has recently come under fire for several scandals, including characterizing Crow people as “drunk Indians” and amid questions surrounding his business dealings. But at the Thursday night rally, both McGill Johnson and Tester took aim at Sheehy’s comments on reproductive rights.
• In a recently released recording, Sheehy called abortion “sinful” and said he wanted it to end “tomorrow.”
• The duo of Tester and McGill Johnson told supporters that their two causes, one a race for the U.S. Senate that could decide the balance of power there, and the second, an effort to enshrine the right to an abortion in the Constitution though the procedure is legal in Montana, are tied together. McGill Johnson said if the U.S. wants federal abortion protection, it’s essential to re-elect Tester.
• “The road to reproductive freedom runs through the U.S. Senate and runs through Jon Tester,” she said.
• She told the crowd of several hundred who were waving Tester signs and wearing signature pink shirts with slogans supporting reproductive freedom and abortion that keeping government out of the doctor’s office is a message that should resonate well in Montana.
• “At no point during pregnancy does anyone believe that politicians are more capable of making those decisions than doctors and women,” McGill Johnson said.
• She said that women are being put in critical, life-threatening situations because doctors fear prosecution for helping during a miscarriage.
• “Providers are so afraid they’ll be jailed that they’re sending women into the parking lot until they get sepsis before they help,” she said. “Make no mistake, they’re coming for IVF, for birth control and for no-fault divorce. This is about power and control.”
• Tester tied abortion and freedom together in his remarks.
• “If there’s one thing that makes a Montanan a Montanan, it’s freedom. A couple of years ago, Roe was the law of the land. That decision (Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health) was the biggest loss of freedom in my lifetime and yours. It was buh-,” Tester said, pausing for a moment. “Baloney. It was baloney.”

Helena Independent Record: Tester rallies for abortion access

By Holly Michels

September 6, 2024

• Kicking off a series of events around the state, the head of Planned Parenthood’s national political arm appeared at a fundraiser here with Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester on Thursday night to rally support both for the incumbent’s high-profile re-election bid and an abortion ballot measure Montanans will weigh in on this November.
• Alexis McGill Johnson, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, told Bozemanites that re-electing Tester and turning out for Constitutional Initiative 128 was critical.
• “The path to freedom runs right through Montana. I am here because I know the path to freedom runs right through Jon Tester,” McGill Johnson said.
• Taking the stage, Tester said the 2022 overturning of Roe with the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which erased the right to access an abortion at the federal level, was the “biggest reduction of freedom in my lifetime and yours too.”
• “If there’s one thing that makes you a Montanan, it’s your love of freedom. You don’t want a politician or bureaucrat or judge telling you, especially if you’re a woman, what health care decision you’re going to make,” Tester said.
• Tester told the room that “elections matter,” and then pivoted to his race, noting there were just 61 days before the Nov. 5 election, “not that I’m counting.”
• McGill Johnson told the crowd that Tester’s Republican opponent Sheehy would work to limit access to abortion while the senator would work to ensure protections.
• “The opposition loves him, the opposition wants him to be in play because they have an agenda to go farther than where we are right now,” McGill Johnson said, raising concerns about a national ban on abortions, denying access to in vitro fertilization and contraception and more.
• McGill Johnson said Republicans are focused on “power and control.”
• “Our vision … is to make sure that abortion is not only unquestionable, it is undeniable and that our bodies are ungovernable,” McGill Johnson said.
• Teri Seth, who identifies as an independent voter, said after the rally that both CI-128 and re-electing Tester were important in this election.
• “Women and families need to be able to make reproductive choices,” Seth said.
• Seth was supporting Tester because “he looks out for Montanans and I believe he looks out for working people.” Seth said Tester’s ability to work with Republicans was also appealing.
• “If you don’t have people that work across party lines, then you don’t have an effective democracy,” Seth said.

NBC Montana: Tester hosts Planned Parenthood rally in Bozeman

By Michael Santoscoy

September 5, 2024

• Montana U.S. Sen. Jon Tester hosted a Planned Parenthood rally in Bozeman Thursday to discuss the stakes for reproductive care this election.
• Several people were in attendance, including Planned Parenthood Action Fund president and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson.
• Tester and McGill Johnson say the ballot initiative that aims to protect abortion in Montana’s constitution is crucial for the Treasure State to ensure women can continue to make their own health care decisions.
• “This initiative is a way for them to codify their rights to freedom here and again show the path to the rest of the nation,” said McGill.
• “It’ll be a vote of the people, and I think it will pass. And I think it’ll be a good thing for Montana, and I think it will ensure freedom is moving forward,” said Tester.

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