Colorado Gov. Polis signs measure guaranteeing right to abortion across the state

On Monday, Colorado joined several other states in solidifying the right to abortion access in statute, which has been a party-line response to other efforts across the country to limit access to the procedure.

The piece was passed ahead of a pending U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a challenge to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that banned states from wholly outlawing abortion.

The Reproductive Health Equity Act was signed into law by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, but the piece had passed the Democratic-led legislature following hours of testimony by the state’s residence and fierce pushback from minority Republicans.

The law will guarantee access to “reproductive care” before and after pregnancy, and it bans local governments from instituting their own restrictions.

Further, the law declares that fertilized eggs, embryos, and fetuses do not have any independent rights, which was in direct response to particular ballot initiatives that looked to restrict abortion by affording embryos the rights of born humans.

“Colorado has been, is, and will be a pro-choice state,” said Polis, noting that increasing restrictions to abortion access elsewhere are “an enormous government overreach, an enormous government infringement” of individual rights. “No matter what the Supreme Court does in the future, people of Colorado will be able to choose when and if they have children.”

Colorado made history as the first state to decriminalize abortion in most circumstances in 1967, and it allowed abortion access at the time but did not guarantee it under state law.

Democratic California leaders are also considering over a dozen bills this year in preparation for a reversal of the Roe decision. Last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law last month to make abortions less expensive for those on private insurance plans.