Backers of an initiative that would put the right to abortion access into the state Constitution submitted signatures to the Secretary of State’s Office on Thursday, the final step in the process to qualify for the November ballot.
After the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022, some states moved to outlaw or restrict abortion access, Colorado has gone in the opposite direction, to protect access to the procedure in state law.
Initiative 89, would ask voters to place some of those protections into the Colorado Constitution.
“We turned in 232,000 signatures,” said Karen Middleton, the President of the abortion access nonprofit, Cobalt, one of the groups spearheading the effort.
Initiative backers gathered on the west steps of the state Capitol during a cold and rainy day to commemorate the occasion.
Supporters had to submit more than 120-thousand valid signatures, and because it’s a constitutional amendment, a certain percentage must come from each of the state’s 35 Senate districts.
Middleton said there’s a lot of energy and momentum going into November, especially given the restrictions that are being placed in other states.
“We are working to protect abortion rights, and we are seeing people threatening IVF, threatening birth control access, and completely banning abortion at this moment.”
She said members of the public ask her about what’s happening in states like Arizona where lawmakers are currently grappling with whether to repeal a near-total abortion ban dating back to 1864, during the Civil War and before Arizona was a state.
“I think the net effect is that we're going to see more stories come from those states that mobilize our voters even more,” said Middleton.
Colorado’s initiative would also ask voters to eliminate the state’s ban on public funding for abortion, and allow public employees to receive coverage for the procedure through their health insurance.
“It just shows that Colorado is really committed to taking care of our patients and that this is health care, and a human right,” said Nancy Fang, an OBGYN in Denver.
As a constitutional amendment, the initiative will need 55 percent of the vote to pass.
Opponents of abortion access have conceded that it’s tough in an increasingly blue state to pass restrictions to abortion access. Proposals at the statehouse to do so this year failed in their first Democratic controlled committee.
Republicans, including Rep. Brandi Bradley, have said it’s wrong to ask taxpayers to foot the bill for a procedure they’re morally and ethically opposed to.
At the ballot Colorado voters have repeatedly struck down proposals aimed at weakening abortion laws, including efforts to define personhood from the moment of conception. The state is one of the few in the nation that has no restrictions on when an abortion can occur during pregnancy.
In 2022, Democratic Gov. Jared Polis signed a trio of health care bills into law reaffirming the right to an abortion and gender-affirming care.
Advocates for abortion rights in Colorado have long said the Democrat-led state must be a safe haven for those seeking care from places like Texas and elsewhere in the country.
“We have been taking care of a lot of those patients and we expect similar volume from Arizona and we're prepared,” said Fang.
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