On April 4, Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed the Reproductive Health Equity Act, codifying abortion access and reproductive rights in the state. The bill exemplifies a response to legislative efforts throughout the country to limit abortion access.
Sponsored by state legislators Rep. Meg Froelich, House Majority Leader Daneya Esgar and Sen. Julie Gonzales, House Bill 22-1279 declares that every individual has a fundamental right to use or refuse contraception, every pregnant individual has a fundamental right to continue a pregnancy and give birth or to have an abortion, and a fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus does not have independent or derivative rights under the laws of the state. The bill was passed by the Colorado State Legislature on March 23 before reaching the governor’s desk.
In referencing prominent cases deconstructing reproductive rights in the U.S., the bill’s sponsor and House Majority Leader Daneya Esgar said, “We don’t ever want to see what’s happening in Texas to happen in Colorado,” citing Texas’ 2021 Heartbeat Act. The bill, according to the American College of Physicians, is considered the most restrictive abortion law in the U.S.; the law prohibits an abortion if a heartbeat is detected—which can occur as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. The law only allows exceptions in cases of medical emergencies, and also allows private citizens to sue Texas abortion providers who violate the law or those who “aids and abets” a woman in getting a procedure. In September of 2021, the Supreme Court declined an emergency petition to block the law from taking effect.
Polis addressed the abortion restriction efforts throughout the U.S. as being “an enormous government overreach [and] an enormous government infringement” of individual rights. “Colorado has been, is and will be a pro-choice state… No matter what the Supreme Court does in the future, people in Colorado will be able to choose when and if they have children,” he said. Polis is referencing the Supreme Court’s upcoming decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization expected in July; a challenge to the state of Mississippi’s 2018 Gestational Age Act, which prohibits all abortions after 15 weeks and stands as a challenge to the Supreme Court’s landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
Colorado’s new bill is essentially designed and implemented as a preventative measure should the majority-conservative Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade.
