With about a third of precincts reporting as of midnight, the outcome of Montana’s infant born-alive law is not yet clear.
Unofficial results show LR-131, a referendum for the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, has received 54% against it, and 46% of votes in favor.
Dr. Brad Holbrook, a maternal fetal medicine specialist in Missoula, told YPR Tuesday night the race was closer than he was hoping.
"It makes me nervous," he said. "I’m hopeful that as more of the votes are counted in the bigger cities hopefully the results will swing more against this initiative because I don’t even want to imagine what it would it do for my practice and the patients I take care of.
State Rep. Tom McGillvray of Billings helped write arguments in favor of LR-131 in the Montana Secretary of State’s voter information pamphlet.
"If this wins it will be amazing to me given the money spent against it. I hope it does," he said. "I’ve said this before, it’s a reasonable measure requiring medically appropriate and reasonable actions to be taken to preserve the life of a child."
If the law passes, Montana would be the 19th state to require medical professionals provide life-saving care to infants born early or after an attempted abortion, or face criminal penalties.
