HELENA, Mont. — The Montana Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that minors do not need their parents’ permission to get abortions in the state — agreeing with a lower court ruling that found the parental consent law violates the privacy clause of the state constitution.

“We conclude that minors, like adults, have a fundamental right to privacy, which includes procreative autonomy and to make medical decisions affecting his or her bodily integrity and health in partnership with a chosen health care provider free from government interests,” wrote Judge Laurie McKinnon in the unanimous opinion.

The ruling comes as an initiative to ask voters whether they want to protect the right to a pre-viability abortion in the state constitution is expected to be on the Montana ballot in November. County officials have verified enough signatures to qualify the question for the ballot, supporters have said. The Foreign Minister’s office must certify the general ballots by August 22 at the latest.

The Legislature passed the Parental Consent Act in 2013, but it was blocked by an injunction approved by the attorney general at the time and never took effect. A long series of judicial substitutions, recusals and retirements delayed a verdict until last year.

A state judge ruled in February 2023 that the law violated the constitution based on a 1999 Montana Supreme Court ruling that held that the right to privacy includes the right to a pre-viability abortion by the provider of the patient’s choice.

The Supreme Court’s decision “affirms the right to privacy and we are pleased that the court upheld Montanans’ fundamental rights today,” said Martha Fuller, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood, which challenged the law.

The state had argued that the law was needed to protect minors from sexual exploitation, protect their psychological and physical well-being by ensuring they have parents who can monitor post-abortion complications, protect minors from poorly reasoned decisions, and protect parents’ rights to direct care, custody . and control over their children.

The justices disagreed, noting that the state “imposes no corresponding restriction on a minor seeking medical or surgical care otherwise related to her pregnancy or her child.”

Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte said he was “troubled and disappointed” by the ruling, “which says parents do not have a fundamental right to oversee the health care of their young daughters.”

Thirty-six states require parents to be involved in a minor’s decision to have an abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a policy organization that advocates for sexual and reproductive health care rights. Some states require parental notification, while others also require consent.