Abortion In Colorado

Abortion in Colorado is legal. 59% of adults said in a poll by the Pew Research Center that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. In 1962, the American Law Institute published their model penal code as it applied to abortions with three circumstances where they believed a physician could justifiably perform an abortion. A version of this was enacted into law in 1967. Colorado became the first state to decriminalize abortion in cases of rape, incest, or in which pregnancy would lead to permanent physical disability of the woman. The Colorado Amendment 48 initiative was proposed in 2008 jointly by Kristine Burton and Michael Burton of Colorado for Equal Rights. Colorado Right to Life supported the amendment. This abortion restriction law did not pass after it met a lot of opposition. In 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018, the state legislature had attempts to ban abortion that all failed.

The number of abortion clinics in the state have been declining for years, going from 73 in 1982 to 59 in 1992 to 21 in 2014. The slowness of the Medicaid payments in 2016 and low Medicaid reimbursement rates resulted in two Planned Parenthood clinics in Colorado being closed in 2016. Since the start of the 2008 Colorado Family Planning Initiative, the number of abortions performed in the state fell by nearly half for women between the ages of 15 - 19.  For women aged 20 – 24, the rate of abortions declined by 18%.  For teens aged 15 – 19, the birth and abortion rate in Colorado between 2009 and 2014 declined around 50%.  9,453 legal abortions were performed in the state in 2014, with this number decreasing to 8,975 in 2015. In the winter of 1978, two women were injured and one died after trying to self-induce abortions using pennyroyal oil.

There were abortion rights activities in Colorado in May 2019 as part of the #StoptheBans movement.  The state has seen anti-abortion rights violence, including a death following a shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado in November 2015.

Terminology

The abortion debate most commonly relates to the "induced abortion" of an embryo or fetus at some point in a pregnancy, which is also how the term is used in a legal sense. Some also use the term "elective abortion", which is used in relation to a claim to an unrestricted right of a woman to an abortion, whether or not she chooses to have one. The term elective abortion or voluntary abortion describes the interruption of pregnancy before viability at the request of the woman, but not for medical reasons.

Anti-abortion advocates tend to use terms such as "unborn baby", "unborn child", or "pre-born child", and see the medical terms "embryo", "zygote", and "fetus" as dehumanizing. Both "pro-choice" and "pro-life" are examples of terms labeled as political framing: they are terms which purposely try to define their philosophies in the best possible light, while by definition attempting to describe their opposition in the worst possible light. "Pro-choice" implies that the alternative viewpoint is "anti-choice", while "pro-life" implies the alternative viewpoint is "pro-death" or "anti-life". The Associated Press encourages journalists to use the terms "abortion rights" and "anti-abortion".

Context

Free birth control correlates to teenage girls having a fewer pregnancies and fewer abortions. A 2014 New England Journal of Medicine study found such a link.  At the same time, a 2011 study by Center for Reproductive Rights and Ibis Reproductive Health also found that states with more abortion restrictions have higher rates of maternal death, higher rates of uninsured pregnant women, higher rates of infant and child deaths, higher rates of teen drug and alcohol abuse, and lower rates of cancer screening.

According to a 2017 report from the Center for Reproductive Rights and Ibis Reproductive Health, states that tried to pass additional constraints on a women's ability to access legal abortions had fewer policies supporting women's health, maternal health and children's health.  These states also tended to resist expanding Medicaid, family leave, medical leave, and sex education in public schools. According to Megan Donovan, a senior policy manager at the Guttmacher Institute, states have legislation seeking to protect a woman's right to access abortion services have the lowest rates of infant mortality in the United States.

Poor women in the United States had problems paying for menstrual pads and tampons in 2018 and 2019. Almost two-thirds of American women could not pay for them. These were not available through the federal Women, Infants, and Children Program (WIC). Lack of menstrual supplies has an economic impact on poor women.  A study in St. Louis found that 36% had to miss days of work because they lacked adequate menstrual hygiene supplies during their period.  This was on top of the fact that many had other menstrual issues including bleeding, cramps and other menstrual induced health issues. Colorado was one of a majority that taxed essential hygiene products like tampons and menstrual pads as of November 2018.

History

Legislative history

In 1962, the American Law Institute published their model penal code as it applied to abortions with three circumstances where they believed a physician could justifiably perform an abortion, "If ... there is substantial risk that the continuance of the pregnancy would gravely impair the physical or mental health of the mother or that the child would be born with grave physical or mental defect, or that the pregnancy resulted from rape, incest, or other felonious intercourse."  In 1967, Colorado became the first state to apply this into law. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, New Mexico, North Carolina and Oregon made reforms to their abortion laws, with most of these states providing more detailed medical guidance on when therapeutic abortions could be performed. In 1967, Colorado became the first state to decriminalize abortion in cases of rape, incest, or in which pregnancy would lead to permanent physical disability of the woman. In 1978, the state of Colorado had set aside Medicaid funding to provide poor women abortions if they needed one. The parents of Becky Bell worked against proposed parental notification laws in Colorado in 1998.

The Colorado Amendment 48 initiative was proposed in 2008 jointly by Kristine Burton and Michael Burton of Colorado for Equal Rights. Colorado Right to Life supported the amendment. There was bipartisan opposition. The text would have said, "Section 31. Person defined. AS USED IN SECTIONS 3, 6, AND 25 OF ARTICLE II OF THE STATE CONSTITUTION, THE TERMS "PERSON" OR "PERSONS" SHALL INCLUDE ANY HUMAN BEING FROM THE MOMENT OF FERTILIZATION." This definition would have applied to all sections of Colorado law, thus giving a fetus the equal rights of life, liberty, and property as a fully developed, born person would.

In 2013, the state was one of five where the legislature introduced a bill that would have banned abortion in almost all cases.  It did not pass. This was repeated in 2014, where Colorado was one of three where the legislature unsuccessful tried to ban abortion. They repeated this in 2015, where the state was one of five. Again, this happened in 2016 where Colorado was one of four where the legislature introduced a bill that would have banned abortion in almost all cases.  In 2017, the state was one of six trying to unsuccessfully banning abortion. The next year, Colorado was one of eleven where the legislature introduced a bill that would have banned abortion in almost all cases.  It did not pass. In 2019, women in Colorado were eligible for temporary disability as a result of abortion or miscarriage.

Judicial history

The US Supreme Court's decision in 1973's Roe v. Wade ruling meant the state could no longer regulate abortion in the first trimester.

Ballot box history

Colorado Amendment 48 was an initiative in 2008 to amend the definition of a person to "any human being from the moment of fertilization." On November 4, 2008, the initiative was turned down by 73.2 percent of the voters.

Amendment 48

Choice	Votes	%
No	1,691,165	73.21
Yes	618,761	26.79
Total votes	2,309,926	100.00

Clinic history

Number of abortion clinics in Colorado by year

Between 1982 and 1992, the number of abortion clinics in the state decreased by fourteen, going from 73 in 1982 to 59 in 1992. In 2014, there were 21 abortion clinics in the state. In 2014, 78% of the counties in the state did not have an abortion clinic. That year, 27% of women in the state aged 15 – 44 lived in a county without an abortion clinic.

In March 2016, there were 21 Planned Parenthood clinics in the state. After Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains switched from directly billing women to directly billing Medicaid in 2016, they ran into funding bills as Medicaid has low reimbursement rates.  Consequently, they were forced to close two clinics in Colorado and one in Wyoming in July 2017.  In 2017, there were nineteen Planned Parenthood clinics in a state with a population of 1,278,937 women aged 15 – 49 of which eleven offered abortion services.

Statistics

In 1990, 426,000 women in the state faced the risk of an unintended pregnancy. Since the start of the 2008 Colorado Family Planning Initiative, the number of abortions performed in the state fell by nearly half for women between the ages of 15 - 19.  For women aged 20 – 24, the rate of abortions declined by 18%.  For teens aged 15 – 19, the birth and abortion rate in Colorado between 2009 and 2014 declined around 50%.  For women aged 20 – 24, the abortion rate declined by 20%. In 2010, the state had 0 publicly funded abortions. In 2013, among white women aged 15–19, there were  abortions 700, 110 abortions for black women aged 15–19, 470 abortions for Hispanic women aged 15–19, and 90 abortions for women of all other races. In 2014, 59% of adults said in a poll by the Pew Research Center that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. In 2017, the state had an infant mortality rate of 4.5 deaths per 1,000 live births. From 2009 to 2017, the rate of teenage abortions in the state fell by 64%.

Contraceptive history

In 2008, Colorado's  Department of Public Health and Environment was provided with private funds to provide poor women in the state with long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs) at little or no cost to them. Since 2009, free, low-cost IUDs resulted in a huge drop in the teenage pregnancy and abortion rate. From 2009 to 2017, the rate of teenage pregnancy in the state fell by 54%.

Deaths and injuries from unsafe or illegal abortions

In the period between 1972 and 1974, there were zero recorded illegal abortion deaths in the state. During the winter of 1978, three women in less than a month required hospitalization in Denver after consuming pennyroyal oil for the purpose of trying to induce an abortion.  One of these women died.

Abortion rights views and activities

Women's March In Denver in 2017.

Women's March In Denver in 2017.

Protests

Women from the state participated in marches supporting abortion rights as part of a #StoptheBans movement in May 2019.

Views

Women in Film Executive Director Kirsten Schaffer said of Georgia and other states similar restrictive abortion bans passed in early 2019, "A woman's right to make choices about her own body is fundamental to her personal and professional well-being. [...] We support people who make the choice not to take their production to Georgia or take a job in Georgia because of the draconian anti-choice law. To that end, we've compiled a list of pro-choice states that offer meaningful tax rebates and production incentives, and encourage everyone to explore these alternatives: California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Washington."

Anti-abortion views and activities

Abortion protest sign on North Table Mountain outside Denver, during the 2008 Democratic National Convention. The sign reads "Destoys uNborn Children", and is made of sheets sown together. It was a new Guinness World Record for largest protest sign. The sign was constructed by American Right To Life Action.

Violence

An incident of anti-abortion violence occurred at an abortion clinic in Denver, Colorado on August 26, 2003.

Between 1993 and 2015, 11 people were killed at American abortion clinics. On November 29, 2015, a shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado, left three dead and several injured, and a suspect Robert L. Dear was apprehended. Police officer and pastor Garrett Swasey, US Iraq War veteran Ke’Arre M. Stewart, and Hawaiian Jennifer Markovsky who was accompanying a friend at the clinic were killed. The suspect had previously acted against other clinics, and referred to himself as a "warrior for the babies" at his hearing. Neighbors and former neighbors described the suspect as "reclusive", and police from several states where the suspect resided described a history of run-ins dating from at least 1997. As of December 2015, the trial of the suspect was open; but, on May 11, 2016, the court declared the suspect incompetent to stand trial after a mental evaluation was completed.

Footnotes