Press

On Friday, September 1st, a lawsuit was filed by the ACLU of Montana, the Center for Reproductive Rights, and law firm Dechert, LLP, on behalf of All Families Healthcare, Blue Mountain Clinic, and Helen Weems, APRN-FNP. The lawsuit is targeting House Bill 937, sponsored by Rep. Lola Sheldon-Gallowy, R-Great Falls, which requires the state license and inspect abortion providers, their facilities and employees. Gov. Greg Gianforte, a Republican, signed this bill into law in May alongside a slew of other anti-abortion bills. These infrastructure restrictions would go into effect Oct. 1 with no guidelines from the state health department on how to obtain a license, making compliance by that date impossible. By Nicole Girten for the Daily Montanan. September 1st, 2023.

Read More

This article discusses the dynamics between Planned Parenthood and independent abortion clinics like All Families Healthcare in Montana and other states across the country. By Eyal Press for the New Yorker. 5/8/2023.

Read More

On Tuesday, May 23rd, a Montana District Court judge granted abortion providers’ request for a preliminary injunction to block several restrictions on abortion access. The restrictions blocked include a rule that would effectively eliminate abortion access for most Medicaid patients in the state and a law that would prohibit the use of public funds for abortion care in almost all cases. This important decision bars the state of Montana from enforcing new abortion restrictions while cases over their constitutionality continue. All Families Healthcare’s Helen Weems was one of the plaintiffs’ represented in this case. By Mara Silvers for the Montana Free Press. 5/23/2023.

Read More

This article covers the court case, Weems V State, that allows for advanced practiced registered nurses to continue provide abortions legally within the state of Montana, including All Families’ Helen Weems, who served as a plantiff. The case asked for a law that prohibited APRNs from practicing abortions to be blocked and has been moving through the court system since 2018, when Weems opened All Families Healthcare in Whitefish. By Justin Franz for the Montana Free Press. 5/15/23.

Read More

Abortion providers in Montana, Kansas, and Virginia filed a lawsuit aimed at preserving access to the widely used abortion pill mifepristone. The providers, which include All Families Healthcare and our practitioner Helen Weems, sued the FDA on in federal court to force the agency to drop several longstanding restrictions on how mifepristone can be prescribed. By Carrie N. Baker for Ms Magazine. 5/9/2023.

By Carrie N. Baker 5/9/2023

Read More

A Montana judge issued a temporary restraining order against the state from enacting a rule that adds more restrictions to Medicaid patients who seek an abortion in Montana. The lawsuit challenging the new rule says that bill is effectively a ban on abortion, and that many of the facets of the new rule have already been previously decided as unconstitutional. The lawsuit was filed by All Families Healthcare Clinic, Blue Mountain Clinic, and Planned Parenthood of Montana. By Darrell Ehrlick for the Daily Montanan. 05/01/2023.

Read More

This piece that played on NPR briefly covers the changing landscape of abortion care in Montana and its storied past, featuring All Families’ current owner and director, Helen Weems, and its owner from its prior iteration in Kalispell, Susan Cahill. The accompanying written article, “Abortion clinics in Conservative-led states face increasing legal threats”, covers past and present legal threats to abortion in Montana and also features Helen Weems and Susan Cahill. Both pieces by Aaron Bolton for NPR. 4/4/2023.

Read More

A proposed Montana Department of Health and Human Services amendment would add barriers to abortion access for low-income Medicaid recipients – creating higher costs for the state and putting clinics at financial risk. By Maggie Dresser for The Flathead Beacon. 1/26/2023.

Read More

This piece covers the newest update on the 2018 case, Weems v. State, which involves the practice of Helen Weems, advanced practice registered nurse and owner of All Families Healthcare. By Mara Silvers for Montana Free Press. 12/14/2022.

Read More

Advanced practice registered nurses in Montana should be allowed to provide abortions based on a state Supreme Court ruling that guarantees residents the right to get a legal abortion from a health care provider of the patient’s choice, an attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights argued Wednesday. By Amy Beth Hanson for Associated Press. 12/14/2022.

Read More

As Montana finds itself an island of abortion access in the northern Rockies, Whitefish abortion provider Helen Weems is warily watching the political forces that, amid gains for their cause, would celebrate the closure of her clinic. By Mara Silvers for Montana Free Press. 9/22/2022.

Read More

Helen Weems, provider and owner of All Families Healthcare, was asked to provide a quote regarding her experience and point of view as an abortion provider: “As an abortion provider, I feel proud and humbled and energized and awed by this calling. Abortion is love—it’s honoring pregnant people when they say, ‘I don’t have the resources to raise a child in the way I want to.’ Abortion is liberation—it’s freeing someone from a burden they know they can’t bear. Abortion is spiritual—it honors the divine in each and every person. The arc toward justice is long and hard-fought. We keep doing this work, despite the racist, hateful, deeply harmful forces against us, because our work centers the humanity of others”. By The Editors for Cosmopolitan Magazine. June 27th, 2022.

Read More

Abortion is constitutionally protected in Montana. An expected reversal of federal abortion protections could increase pressure on local abortion providers. By Mara Silvers for Montana Free Press. 6/22/2022.

Read More

Abortion providers in Northwest Montana say their patients are scared, panicked and confused as they prepare for nationwide access restrictions following the Supreme Court draft leak that would overturn Roe v. Wade. By Maggie Dresser for The Flathead Beacon. 6/9/2022.

Read More

All Families Healthcare won Best Family practice and Helen Weems won Best Nurse in the the Whitefish Pilot’s Best of Whitefish 2022. The paper briefly profiled Helen on what prompted her to start All Families and what it means to her, and the clinic, to be recognized in such a way by the community. 5/10/2022

Read More

An abortion provider, an antiabortion activist and a former member of an underground abortion network react to the draft Supreme Court opinion. By Monica Hesse for The Washington Post. 5/6/2022.

Read More

The high court said the right to privacy in the Montana Constitution protects a woman's autonomy over her reproductive health. By Associated Press for the Flathead Beacon. 2/28/2022.

Read More

Having elected its first anti-abortion governor in 16 years, Montana has joined other states in passing laws to restrict abortion access while courts decide if they violate the Constitution. By Maggie Dresser for the Flathead Beacon. 11/17/2021.

Read More

Court upheld a ruling that allows a nurse practitioner and a nurse midwife to provide abortions while they challenge a state law. By Associated Press for the Flathead Beacon. 4/29/2019.

Read More

Nearly four years after Kalispell clinic’s destruction, family practice opens in Whitefish to offer primary and reproductive care, including abortions. By Tristan Scott for the Flathead Beacon. 1/30/2018.

Read More