HB 50 Montana House · 2025 Regular Session

Provide protections to parents and pregnant women with substance use disorder

HB 50 protects parents and pregnant women with drug use disorder by preventing child welfare investigations or custody actions solely based on positive drug test results. It amends Montana law to shield individuals seeking treatment or prenatal care from criminal charges related to drug use, and prohibits using drug test results alone to initiate child abuse cases or remove children from homes. The bill directly affects pregnant women, parents, healthcare providers, and child welfare systems by ensuring medical care access isn't penalized. Key provisions include immunity for seeking overdose help and requiring medical evaluation as the primary factor in child welfare decisions.
Bill status died 3 of 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Dec 2024
Committee Review
Jan 2025
House Passage
Jan 2025
Senate Passage
Governor
Introduced Dec 9, 2024 Last action May 22, 2025
Maddy AI version diff · 7 comparisons

What changed between versions

HB0050_1(9).pdf HB0050_2(10).pdf · 3 edits
MINOR
The bill reorganized the Good Samaritan protections to clarify that pregnant women seeking or receiving substance use treatment or prenatal care are immune from prosecution. It also added a new exemption for women seeking postpartum health care up to 12 months after delivery, ensuring they are not criminally liable for reporting crimes related to their care.
Scope change
The scope of immunity was expanded to explicitly include postpartum health care services for up to one year after childbirth.
ELIGIBILITY

Added protection for women seeking postpartum health care up to 12 months after delivery.

Reformatted the list of protected services for pregnant women to use a clearer lettered structure (A, B) instead of a nested numbered list.

TECHNICAL

Adjusted line numbering and formatting throughout the document to reflect the new text structure.

Floor votes · House Jan 16, 2025

How they voted

980
Passed · 2 other
Total votes 100
Jan 16, 2025
D Democratic42
42 Yea
100% Yea
R Republican58
56 Yea 2
96% Yea
Vote distribution
All Yea All Nay Mixed No data
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
26
Key actions
4
Committee
5
Jan 17, 2025
Committee
(S) Referred to Committee - (S) Public Health, Welfare and Safety
upper
Jan 16, 2025
House · Passed
House Vote: pass (98-0-2)
house
Jan 13, 2025
Lower · Passed
(H) Committee Report - (H) Human Services
lower
Jan 11, 2025
Lower · Passed
(H) Committee Executive Action - (H) Human Services
lower
Jan 10, 2025
Lower · Passed
(H) Committee Executive Action - (H) Human Services
lower
Dec 20, 2024
Committee
(H) Referred to Committee - (H) Human Services
lower
Dec 9, 2024
Introduced
(H) Introduced
lower
1 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
RM
Ron Marshall
RRepublican
MT
87