Dusti Gurule, president and CEO of COLOR, speaks in celebration of Amendment 79’s passage, enshrining abortion rights in the Colorado Constitution, at Number 38 in Denver on Nov. 5, 2024. (Andrew Fraieli for Colorado Newsline)
Leaders with Coloradans for Protecting Reproductive Freedom celebrated Amendment 79’s passage Thursday, saying a constitutional amendment provides the most state protection of abortion rights possible.
Amendment 79 enshrines the right to abortion in the Colorado Constitution and will allow state and local government employees to have abortion care covered by their health insurance. As of Thursday afternoon, about 62% of Colorado voters supported the measure. Coloradans for Protecting Reproductive Freedom is a coalition of abortion rights groups and other progressive organizations that led the campaign backing the amendment.
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Karen Middleton, president of reproductive rights group Cobalt, said the purpose of the amendment was to establish that abortion is health care, to prevent government overreach, to remove discriminatory barriers, and to ensure access to reproductive health care for all, not some. Middleton said Cobalt and another advocacy group, the Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights, or COLOR, are already working on draft legislation to implement the amendment.
“Coloradans should have the freedom to make personal, private health care decisions, a right that shouldn’t depend on one’s profession, the source of their health insurance, or who is in office,” Middleton said.
Middleton said codifying abortion rights in the Colorado Constitution is the best way to protect patients and providers under a second Donald Trump presidency. Trump, the Republican former president and president-elect, appointed three of the conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices and has bragged about ending federal protections for abortion. Middleton said a constitutional amendment “creates as much protection and buffer as we can possibly have as a state.”
“The incoming president did say that he had taken this decision back to the states, and we would like to lean in on that message,” Middleton said. “If the states are making the decisions, Colorado has made this decision, and we’ve affirmed this protection in our Constitution.”
Dusti Gurule, president and CEO of COLOR, said the language of the ballot measure made it clear that state and local governments are prohibited from “denying, impeding or discriminating against this right.” She said there is still concern that Trump would try to interfere, but that advocates are prepared and “we’re not going to stop fighting.”
“Throughout all of this work, we have been very intentional about building a movement along with this,” Gurule said.
Nicole Hensel, executive director of New Era Colorado, a nonprofit that encourages young people to engage in the political process, said the amendment will protect public employees, health care providers, marginalized communities and people seeking abortions. She said her organization is “basking in the glory of what youth turnout did on this measure” and their continued support for reproductive rights.
Since states around the country voted on ballot measures related to abortion this week, Hensel said it’s important that Colorado’s measure not only affirms a legal right, “it’s actively removing barriers, and it’s actively pursuing equity,” particularly for public employees. Gurule said the work supporting the right to abortion in Colorado is “revolutionary” and affects the whole country’s ecosystem.
Shara Smith, CEO of Interfaith Alliance of Colorado, said the amendment’s passage is “a victory for faith communities across Colorado” because it ensures someone’s “own faith and conscience” guide their decisions when seeking reproductive health care, not the government or someone else’s faith. In addition to the alliance, 10 faith organizations endorsed the measure.
“As an interfaith public policy and advocacy organization with over 400 faith families in our statewide network, representing over two dozen faith traditions, we know that the faith community is not monolithic when it comes to reproductive health care,” Smith said. “Amendment 79 ensures that no one faith or faction within one faith is determining the rights for everyone else.”
Over 125 organizations endorsed Amendment 79, and close to 200 individuals, including Colorado elected officials, Gurule said. She added that over 1,000 volunteers supported the campaign. By August, the campaign benefited from over $13 million between money raised by the campaign itself and organizations that supported the amendment.
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