Democratic Party Chief Slams GOP Over Abortion and Housing

Montana Republicans just wrapped up their convention in Billings last week and the Chair of the Montana Democratic Party couldn’t wait to talk about it on Tuesday’s Talk Back show.

Robyn Driscoll paid her monthly visit to chat on the phone with KGVO listeners on Tuesday’s Talk Back show.

She first slammed the GOP for taking the fight against Roe v Wade a step further invoking legislation to ban abortion altogether.

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“They passed a resolution that included a total ban on abortion with no exception for rape, incest, or the health of the mother, and when one of the attendees tried to amend that to provide that a ban on abortion with the exception for rape, incest or the health of the mother that was voted down,” began Driscoll.

She added that the Montana State Constitution currently provides for the right for a woman to have an abortion.

“Our State Constitution protects a woman's right to choose whether to terminate or carry a full-term pregnancy,” she said. “I'm sure you know that one of the things that really concerns us as Democrats, is that if they gain a supermajority in our state legislature, they could very well bring a constitutional amendment forward that would completely ban abortion in Montana.”

Another topic that Driscoll discussed was the Montana Democratic Party’s plans for the nearly $2 billion surplus in personal and business income taxes collected over the past two years, and how those funds might be used to benefit Montanans.

“One of the things that they want to focus on is workforce housing,” she said. “As we all know, there is a huge shortage of workforce housing in the state of Montana, and so one of the things that Democrats will bring forth is to provide low-interest loans to developers to build affordable rental homes, and then provide no-interest loans to nonprofits building homes for families to own.”

Driscoll said another Democratic Party plan for that surplus tax money is focused on child care.

“Child care is another really huge necessity in the state of Montana,” she said. “The Democrats will offer $125 million to establish more providers in what we would call child care deserts, and we would do that by providing start-up grants and low-interest loans. Then for the existing providers, that is, folks that are already providing childcare, we would invest in a pay raise to attract and retain individuals to work at the facilities that they're running.”

Driscoll said the Montana Democratic Party will be holding their state convention in Butte on July 29-30.