When the Law Changes, the Mission Doesn’t: A Conversation with Rep. Terry Falk Pt. 1 (Ep.10)

In the wake of CI-128, many Montanans are asking a hard question: What now? If the law has changed, does that mean the mission has too?

In this episode of The Abort Ignorance Montana Podcast, host Tanaia Puchta sits down with Representative Terry Falk (HD 10) for a candid and forward-looking conversation about what it means to continue advocating for life in a state where we now have abortion without limits in our state constitution. 

Rep. Falk brings a grounded, compassionate perspective to the discussion—sharing what’s still possible when you are engaged, where community action matters most, and how everyday Montanans can influence the culture in meaningful, effective ways. The law may have shifted—but as this conversation makes clear, the work is far from over.

Whether you’re feeling discouraged, motivated, or somewhere in between, this episode will equip you with a clearer vision for how to move forward with purpose in Montana and promote a culture of life.

It's time to educate, advocate, and heal the culture in Montana surrounding abortion. The cost of ignorance is greater than the price of truth. Together, let's pay the price to find the truth. Find more at abortignorancemt.com

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Hi, welcome to the Award Ignorance Montana podcast. I'm Tanayer, your host, and in this podcast, we like to educate, advocate, and heal the culture in Montana surrounding abortion. As always, please subscribe to our channel so that you can follow us and get updates for when we have new episodes coming out. Make sure that you download the episodes. You can hear them wherever you are. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram. If you have any questions or thoughts about today's episode, please email us at abortignorance mt at gmail.com. On today's episode, I get the privilege of interviewing Representative Terry Falk. Thank you for being here.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Pleasure to be here.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

He is the representative for the Flathead area in House District 10. He is a two-term rep so far. He was House District District 8 before the redistricting. And I actually had the privilege of knowing Terry before he ran for office. I am friends with your daughter, and we got to know each other a little bit through that. And I remember being very excited when you decided to run for office. And I think you're doing great work for the legislative uh uh laws and things going on. Um, and so that's how we got connected, and you agreed to come on to this podcast today. So just tell our listeners a little bit about yourself.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

Sure. Maybe tell me, do you remember when we first met?

SPEAKER_00 1:32

What what it had to be, I mean, five or so years ago, and it was, I think, probably just through an event with um Janelle. Janelle, yeah. All right, probably something with sports, I'm sure.

unknown 1:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:44

Likely. No, it's uh I consider you a great friend, and I um appreciate uh Janelle allowing me to be uh involved and and plugged into your your friends and your friend group. Um so born in Minnesota, raised mostly in Wisconsin, my parents moved me here um and uh graduated high school, went to Flata Valley Community College and graduated there, um, was involved in a restaurant enterprise um and ended up being a real estate finance, which is what I do today. I've been doing that for a long time. Um well into the last century. Uh so that gives you some idea. Um, and then uh my kids and I uh ran the Split Rock Cafe downtown. That was a lot of fun for about three years. Um, and so now it's investments and um real estate finance and politics, which is unlike anything I've ever done. Um but two kids, uh one's age 30, Janelle's 28 now, uh, a couple of grandkids, three to be exact. Love uh living here in the Valley. It's such a pleasure and a privilege. And wow, I'm so thankful my parents moved me here. Wow, and just yeah, it's it's been over 40 years, and um I've lived in the same house now, single guy, just working on my house, uh where the kids were brought up, uh 25 years now. Wow, and um just such a privileged life. So anyway, yeah, and then politics, um you know I just want to make a difference.

SPEAKER_03 3:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:24

Um there's it's uh like I said earlier, it's not unlike anything I've ever done. But uh this uh subject, this issue, this concern, this wow scourge really on our country of you know disrespecting life, um is right up there at the top with things that I'm concerned about. Uh definitely motivated to try to make a change in that. Um yeah, maybe made some baby steps, but you know, I've heard there's more abortions now than there was before Roe v. Wade was repealed. So yeah, a lot of good that did. Um, so our efforts aren't taking us anywhere. And well I that's why I'm here. I I hope that you can get this out to you know, a jillion people. Um, your effort actually in this is admirable. You should be congratulated. Um, and I was thinking today as I was thinking about this. Um you have devoted your life right now to this, uh, as well as being a mom and a wife. And so this is something that's on your mind literally every day, multiple hours a day. It's kind of it'd be hard to stay upbeat and positive. I don't have that. I it because I've you know, I've said this before, um, the battle on the floor when you're debating bills like this, like pertaining to life, is excruciatingly uh spiritual and emotional, and um it's hard. Yeah, and I sort of get to walk away from it though. Yeah, you know, yeah. Um I was looking at my notes from when I debated a bill in the last session, not 25 but 23. And interestingly enough, the talking points are basically the same.

SPEAKER_03 5:19

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 5:20

We just haven't made any progress.

SPEAKER_03 5:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:22

Uh it's still about compassion, it's still about loving both the mom and the baby, yeah, both lives, being caring for them, uh, not necessarily just doing whatever they want, obviously, which is parenting, yeah, as you are right there knowing. Um, but making the hard decisions, being the adult in the room, and and not in a not in a punitive way, yeah. Just because we know as a parent, we can see the decisions that our children are making, and we can see the outcome, and we can see what they'll regret.

SPEAKER_03 5:59

Right.

SPEAKER_02 6:00

And I just I just feel really bad for ladies that um end up going through an abortion and the the trauma they have to experience after the fact. Um there's there's hope.

SPEAKER_03 6:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:15

Um, but uh that's that's irreversible, right?

SPEAKER_00 6:18

It is.

SPEAKER_02 6:19

So um yeah. So anyway, yeah, thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

Of course. No, I love that. And yeah, thank you for uh what you said about this effort because it is a spiritual battle, and it's true that um and I like to talk about that and encourage listeners because it's something where I think the enemy does want to wear down the saints. He wants to wear down those who are fighting for life, whether it's the abortion issue or um, you know, end of life with euthanasia or transgenderism or whatever it is, he just wants to see life snuffed out. And so you do you carry that weight. And when it feels like the outcome is so bleak in our state where we're just our hands are tied. Now we've talked on a previous podcast about um, you know, the status of where we're at in Montana as far as unlimited abortion being in our constitution, and it can kind of feel like, well, what can we do and why does it matter? Um, and so I think it's good to keep encouraging each other that we it it does matter, and we can always do something. We can pray, we can help at resource clinics, we can raise our kids and grandkids just to love life. And that eventually will shift the culture. And I know that the value of life in general is something that you are very passionate about. Um, and can you tell us a little bit about why that is or where why why are you pro-life pro life? Or do you have, you know, what's the history of what what are you passionate about? What what makes you so passionate about this subject?

SPEAKER_02 7:37

Well, you know, uh, I didn't grow up on a farm. Um, youngest of four kids. I'd never seen a pregnancy or a delivery until my oldest son was born.

SPEAKER_03 7:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 7:48

And I was completely blown away.

SPEAKER_03 7:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:51

I didn't, I don't know why, you know, I guess I just didn't take the time to really, I mean, went to Lama's and did all and understood sort of, but then uh his delivery was really rough. And um, and I saw what his mom went through, yeah, and I said, Wow, I have a profound new respect for all childbearing women. Yeah, that is incredible, that miracle. And then especially for my mom, because you know, she had had three kids before me, so it wasn't like she didn't know.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

Yeah, yeah. I mean, she still chose to do it. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 8:26

Yeah, and so I'm just yeah, just that gratitude. Um, and I want that gratitude for all babies, you know. Uh I want them to know their mother, uh, to have a name, um, to take them to school, you know. And so um, so it's and I think just I had good parents, you know. Um they didn't we didn't talk about abortion growing up. I don't ever remember talking about it. First time I remember hearing about it was in high school, well after Roe v. Wade.

SPEAKER_03 8:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

Um, and the arguments, by the way, they're the same.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

I thought so. They haven't changed. I'm not that creative. No.

SPEAKER_02 9:05

Um, they're just as weak as ever.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:07

Um, so I don't know. I mean, it's sort of like because of the way I was raised, maybe it's sort of like common sense. And I yeah, I feel bad even saying that because I know a lot of people uh don't have that benefit of having parents like that. Um people, some parents will tell their kids, I wish you'd never been born.

SPEAKER_00 9:26

Right.

SPEAKER_02 9:26

I think that's awful.

SPEAKER_00 9:27

Or I wish you were a girl and you're a boy, I wish you were a boy and you're a girl. That one's very common. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:32

Um those are messages that no child needs to hear.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

Right.

SPEAKER_02 9:37

Um, hopefully, you know, nobody feels like that, but at least, you know, maybe don't say it. But uh, so yeah, the value of life. And I mean, I think that's central to this whole issue. You know, you hear things like uh there was an um Instagram post where somebody uh was interviewing uh taking signatures and interviewing a young couple and uh says, Hey, we just like you to sign this to um refute the growing trend, or I don't know if he said that, but uh of puppies being aborted. They're just they're being they're taken out of their mother's womb, they're being torn apart.

SPEAKER_03 10:14

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 10:15

And this is this is just awful, and we want you to sign this petition. So they signed it. So here's another one. Uh this is happening with humans too. And would you sign and they wouldn't sign it.

SPEAKER_03 10:26

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 10:27

So it and interesting, I mean, this came up um on the floor in the 23 session too, regarding a bill.

SPEAKER_03 10:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:34

Um how is it that we've gotten to a place in our society where human uh humans take less and a smaller role, smaller value than four-legged uh creatures. Yeah. Um, you know, sometimes the argument is made that, well, the the world can't support population growth and all these additional people. But we never I've never heard anybody say that about animals.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

Right. And there's all the animals that are here, and it's such there's just such deception in these arguments because the reality is because of abortion, we have eliminated an entire generation. And in Montana specifically, we're actually in a natural decrease, which means we don't have enough people to repopulate Montana at the same rate that people are dying. And so we're actually gonna if you if we keep going the way we're going, we're not gonna have a society left because we're not gonna have people to have it. And so there's just such deceptions like that that just diminish uh that devalue human life in any way that they can.

SPEAKER_02 11:40

Yeah. Just to clarify something you said, um the population is growing in Montana, but it's because of people moving in from out of state.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

Correct.

SPEAKER_02 11:47

So you're saying death rate, birth rate.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

Yes, death rate, exactly. Yeah, death rate, birth rate. Yeah, that is negative. Great point. Thank you. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 11:54

But if you just compare those to the thing, why might I misinterpret it's a lot of things?

SPEAKER_00 11:57

We have lots of people that are moving in, that's for sure. It's slowed down a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

Yes. It has.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

But but yes, just the birth rate to death rate um in general, we're in a natural decrease.

SPEAKER_02 12:08

So let me talk about uh again, just maybe with the value of life. Yeah, please do. So there's a couple things. One is we seem to think that um there are victimless uh decisions that get made in laws. Um like, well, we can disobey some basic laws because it's really not hurting anybody. Um and the issue though, uh that I want to the second point I want to make is uh when you have um when you let the what's the horse out of the barn, is maybe the okay uh then all the animals want to leave because the door is wide open. And so that's what's happening with um medical assistance in dying.

SPEAKER_03 12:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 12:59

We're devaluing life in multiple areas now. And in Canada it's really brutal.

SPEAKER_03 13:07

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 13:08

And they do this because they they think they can save money.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

That's the that's I've watched like the medical professionals. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

They they're up to they feel like saving 80 million dollars per year because they don't have to care for these people.

SPEAKER_03 13:21

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 13:22

In whatever fashion they need to care, be cared for, whether they're the elderly, yeah, whether they're the people that are severely uh maybe mentally disabled, yeah, but even moderately. And now the next bill they want to pass is make it legal for minors. And in the bill that they're working on, apparently, I haven't seen it, but uh, they are um making it so that the parents find out and try to stop them, they can be arrested for that.

SPEAKER_00 13:50

So if a teenager, potentially happening in Canada, if a teenager is bullied at school and they don't feel like they have you know the resources to get through that, and they are you know dealing with insecurities and they have depression and they just want to not exist. They don't see the purpose in life. They can potentially, if this went through, they could go to a doctor, have a doctor-assisted, physician-assisted suicide. So they would be committing suicide with the help of a medical professional and their parents don't get to know, and if they tried to intervene, would have consequences. That's right. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 14:27

Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_00 14:28

It's so it's so it's almost hard to like wrap your mind around that.

SPEAKER_02 14:34

Yeah, I mean, it's stuff movies are made of exactly four years ago.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

Well, and I've always said if you watch Hollywood and movies, yeah, it's a it's almost a foretelling of like what's gonna there's some things like that. That's like, man, how could that be real? But um, I mean, why aren't we instead, you know, helping children, you know, young teens and kids find their own value, find their own self-worth. Why don't why why aren't we putting in the efforts to help them with that?

SPEAKER_02 15:02

Exactly. That's the point I wanted to make earlier. Is I just don't want to be a part of a society where we just randomly give up on people. Like, okay, well, you're either not valuable enough or you're too far down the road, or you know, it might be it might be better for society if we work less on trying to really help you than just give you an out. And I don't I guess I just don't understand. I mean, I guess that the people don't the two questions I like to ask people who are maybe uh experimenting with being a believer in Jesus Christ or uh maybe just not interested at all, but they want to have a conversation because I ask them where did you where did all this come from? And what happens after you die? And I recognize that a lot of people just think this is it, this is all there is. And why would you just encourage somebody to quickly snuff out their life? This is it. I mean, if that's I mean, I think it doesn't even make sense if you have that thinking that there's nothing that happens after you die. Well then but shouldn't you want to live a little bit longer?

SPEAKER_00 16:13

Well, yeah, if it just is it over, shouldn't you want to experience all of it if this really is it?

SPEAKER_02 16:18

Makes sense. I don't know, sort of, but I guess I don't know. But I think it's important to point out too that there are people in our society, particularly politicians, um, who want to make America look like Canada. They this is their idea of what America should look like. Wow. And of course, uh medical assistance in dying ha has been taking place in Europe for I don't know how many years, but longer than Canada. So this is this is where they want to take us. And there's and you talk about a spiritual battle, and yeah, not dealing with flesh and blood. I mean, there's there's money behind this. There's um I mean I I don't like to use the phrase demonic activity very often, but I don't know how else you can't explain some of this with the darkness of it. And that's why I I mentioned earlier, you know, with your what you're doing and how I mean it'd be really easy to get depressed, I would think, doing what you're doing. Oh yeah, as you face this day daily battle. And the probably one of the more depressing aspects of this battle is we're losing.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 17:26

We're we're getting slaughtered.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

Yeah. And that's that's been hard. I remember after um the Constitution in Montana was changed and CO128 passed, um, I mean, we just didn't do much. I mean, I had just gotten married when CI 128 happened, and that was our main focus. And we pushed and pushed and pushed. And I believe thank you, by the way. Oh, yes, thank you for all that you did. And when it passed, in some ways, it's like, what do we do now? And we just we just stopped for a while until God recently started bringing up like, well, after Charlie Kirk's assassination was really when we decided, okay, like there's, you know, there's a voice now missing in our nation and our state, and maybe we can do a little bit um to help. But it is still a spiritual battle because the it does seem like evil is winning. And so we have to just continue to encourage ourselves and encourage those around us. And it for me, it's always, you know, the more people that we have that are even involved in some little way. You know, I have my sister, she has four young kids, and she's so passionate about pro-life, and she just does whatever she can. She calls, you know, the reps when we need to for the laws because she can do that from home. She does little bits that she can, and even that encourages me. Like we don't all have to do a podcast or run for um you know, house district, but we can all do something. And that keeps me really encouraged and going because at least we're we're doing something.

SPEAKER_04 18:44

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 18:45

And all of these other avenues that we can help promote family in general, whether it's you know, making sure that we don't have physician assisted suicide in Montana or making sure that we protect kids from transgenderism, like we we have to win somehow and somewhere, and we'll do we're not gonna stop, we're gonna do whatever we can to help the value of life come forth um and be culturally normal in our state and our nation.

SPEAKER_02 19:08

So well, I guess I would like to address the people then that this is getting sent to or people that are listening to this. I'm just gonna be blunt. We're not doing enough.

SPEAKER_03 19:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:24

As a society, uh, maybe it's as churches, um whether they're Christians. You don't have to be a Christian to be pro-life, obviously. I mean it's true. It's pretty logical.

SPEAKER_00 19:35

Yeah. There's actually a whole group now um called secular pro-life. Oh. And it's a group, um, it's a nation nationwide group, and uh they're they're not believers, they're not Christians, but they are passionately pro-life, which yeah, it's very interesting to engage with them on some levels. Um but just like you said, it's uh it doesn't have to necessarily be a Christian belief. I think that's really founded in that because you know, God is life and love, but um, it does just it just makes sense. Life just it makes sense. It's logical.

SPEAKER_02 20:05

It is very logical. So going down that road then, if we're not doing enough, what can we do?

SPEAKER_03 20:11

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 20:12

Um the liberal political action committees, the non-government organizations that are behind this, they're super passionate. And you see it it rallies, you know. Uh and it's it's not just in this issue, yeah. The level of uh hatred and violence and uh emotion. Um and I'm not saying we should match that. Right. But we should match the effort and some emotion. I mean, we're emotional people, yeah. We shouldn't just stash our emotions away, we should use them rightly um and for good and not to um criticize or harm other people with our words. Um but they but those that that passionate group that's for abortion, yeah, those types of groups outrage conservative groups four to one. Wow. We're so far behind. Wow. Now the danger is that some people could listen to this and say, well, that's just too far behind. We we can never catch up.

SPEAKER_03 21:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:15

And I get that. Um that's kind of that's a fairly normal human response.

SPEAKER_03 21:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:20

But I'm not willing to accept that as an excuse. And that's why I'm doing what I'm doing, and you're doing what you're doing. But we have to see this as a battle we can win, no matter how far behind we are. Yeah, you know, greater is he that is in us than he is in the world. Um prayer matters, it's one of those interesting phenomena that uh almost doesn't make sense. Yeah, but uh there's a lot of things in life that don't quite make sense. True. Um, so pray, talk to your neighbors, uh get involved somewhere. I don't know if 40 days for life is still happening. I haven't seen It for a while.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

I don't know if we have a camp uh a campaign locally. It is still happening. Um, but I don't I don't know if it's currently running in the flyhead. It is across the state, but I saw you at March for Life. Yep, March for Life.

SPEAKER_02 22:12

And that was that was really encouraging. We filled up that gymnasium with people.

SPEAKER_00 22:16

It was amazing. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 22:18

The speakers were going on.

SPEAKER_00 22:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:20

Um so good.

SPEAKER_00 22:21

But on the Four Days for Life um thing, we don't I don't know if we have that campaign going, but there are still um a small group of people that go to the abortion clinic um in Whitefish and they pray every Tuesday and Thursday. So that's something people could do. They could yeah, jump on that rotation and just go there and pray for an hour or something, and it it matters.

SPEAKER_02 22:39

So and take this podcast, spread her out worldwide.

SPEAKER_03 22:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 22:46

This does not a Montana issue, it's it's a world issue.

SPEAKER_03 22:49

That's true.

SPEAKER_02 22:50

And I mean, I don't like asking people for money, and I don't want people to give me money. I understand. But this requires funding.

SPEAKER_00 22:58

It does.

SPEAKER_02 22:59

And has to it it has to come from people like us.

SPEAKER_00 23:03

Yep. Thank you for joining us on part one of our interview with Representative Terry Falk. Please join us next time to hear more from Representative Falk from the Flathead area as we talk about what we can do legislatively to create a culture of life in Montana, as well as what it means to love them both and to support the mother who is considering abortion as well as the pre-born baby. As always, if you have questions or thoughts about today's episode, please email us at abortignorancemt at gmail.com. You can follow us on Facebook and Instagram. You can also subscribe to this podcast so you can get notified anytime a new episode airs, as well as download them so that you can listen anywhere on the go. We look forward to having you with us next time.