Abortion rights supporters march in Denver in the wake of a leaked Supreme Court opinion that indicated justices would overturn Roe v. Wade, May 7, 2022. (Kevin Mohatt for Colorado Newsline)
Lawmakers considered a pair of bills to bolster existing Colorado law around reproductive health care rights amid an increasingly “hostile” national policy landscape in a Senate committee on Wednesday night.
Senate Bill 25-129 passed on a party-line vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee, with Republicans voting in opposition. The committee laid over Senate Bill 25-130 at the sponsor’s request and will vote on it later.
Taken together, the bills aim to strengthen Colorado’s protections in anticipation of increased threats of reproductive health care from surrounding states and from the federal government under President Donald Trump.
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“At the national level, they are pushing these decisions down to the states. While other states can continue with their regressive health care policies, here in Colorado, that is not the way we want to do it,” said Sen. Lisa Cutter, a Jefferson County Democrat.
The bills come after multiple successful efforts by the Legislature to bolster abortion access in Colorado following the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court. Voters also added the right to abortion in the state’s constitution last November.
Cutter is a sponsor of SB-129, which would build on a 2023 shield law to protect Colorado providers and the out-of-state patients they see for abortion care. It is also sponsored by Sen. Faith Winter of Broomfield, Rep. Karen McCormick of Longmont and Rep. Junie Joseph of Boulder, all Democrats.
That 2023 law aimed to protect providers and patients in the state from enforcement of other state’s anti-abortion laws. It states that authorities in Colorado cannot cooperate with those out-of-state investigations into “legally protected health care,” defined as reproductive health care and gender affirming care.
The new bill would prohibit attorneys, local law enforcement agencies and other in-state entities like hospitals and insurers from complying with “hostile” out-of-state investigations into care that is legally protected in Colorado. It would also require anyone requesting a subpoena to affirm that it is not intended to pursue a charge related to protected care.
Earlier this year, a Louisiana grand jury indicted a New York doctor for allegedly prescribing abortion medication online to a Louisiana resident. Texas’ attorney general filed a civil lawsuit against the same doctor last year with similar allegations. Advocates worry states that criminalize abortion will go after doctors in states with expansive reproductive health care access like Colorado.
“We live in a time where the potential for surveillance and criminalization of pregnant people and doctors who provide abortion care has increased, and in some states is even encouraged,” said Sudria Twyman, a legal fellow at the National Women’s Law Center. “If passed, SB-129 would be an important step to bolster privacy protections and strengthen legal obligations to protect abortion seekers and doctors who provide abortion care in Colorado.”
The bill would also allow a provider to leave their name off a prescription label for mifepristone and misoprostol, which are used in medication abortion. Sponsors say that would protect Colorado doctors who prescribe online or over the phone and then mail medication to patients in another state, as well as doctors who prescribe medication in-person to someone who traveled from a neighboring state and plans to take the pills when they get back home.
A handful of doctors testified on Wednesday that telehealth abortion care is increasingly common.
“It’s important that our health care providers feel like they have full capacity to operate under Colorado law, and this will help them have that full capacity,” Sen. Faith Winter, a Broomfield Democrat and bill sponsor, said. “Other states have no right to impose their regressive laws on Colorado.”
Brittany Vessely, the executive director of the Colorado Catholic Conference, told lawmakers she worried that the bill could make churches and faith-based hospitals subject to litigation. The bill would allow someone by an out-of-state legal action over their abortion to take that person or entity to court within six years.
“As written, this private right of action could be so broadly interpreted that any entity that adheres to their sincerely-held belief opposing abortion and advocates against it could face a civil liability in Colorado, especially if they participated in a legal action in a life-affirming state such as Texas or Idaho,” she said.
SB-130 would add to state law the emergency abortion protections currently guaranteed in the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act. It would ensure access to emergency care to stabilize a patient, including emergency abortions and miscarriage care.
“We’re lucky in this country that we have the technology and the medical facilities that can provide care when things go wrong. But we need more than the technology and the facilities and the capacity. We need the laws wrapping around those facilities and those capacities to protect the human beings in the state of Colorado,” said bill sponsor Sen. Mike Weissman, an Aurora Democrat. Weissman shared the story of a friend who received emergency care in time to treat multiple ectopic pregnancies.
SB-130 is also sponsored by Sen. Julie Gonzales of Denver, Rep. Meg Froelich of Englewood and Rep. Yara Zokaie of Fort Collins, all Democrats.
John Seward, the Vice Chair for Government Relations at the Emergency Medical Services Association of Colorado, asked for an amendment that would clarify that the bill applies to emergency facilities, not the work paramedics do in the field.
“Ambulances are not the same as emergency departments. The training and resources provided in these environments are very different. We need to make sure that we make appropriate clarifications,” he said.
Republicans will likely oppose both bills en masse, but Democrats have wide majorities in both the House and Senate.
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