New Colorado Law Guarantees Right to Abortion

April 5, 2022

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed a invoice on Monday that codifies the correct to an abortion in state legislation, based on The Associated Press.

The Reproductive Health Equity Act, or House Bill 1279, ensures entry to reproductive care earlier than and after being pregnant and bans native governments from imposing their very own restrictions.

“In the State of Colorado, the serious decision to start or end a pregnancy with medical assistance will remain between a person, their doctor and their faith,” Polis stated in a press release.

The invoice states that “every individual has a fundamental right” to make choices about their reproductive well being care, together with rights to make use of or refuse contraception and to proceed or finish a being pregnant. The new legislation doesn’t change the state’s present authorized framework, Polis stated.

“This bill simply maintains this status quo regardless of what happens at the federal level and preserves all existing constitutional rights and obligations,” he added.

Colorado joined 15 different states and the District of Columbia in codifying the correct to have an abortion, based on NPR, both all through a being pregnant or earlier than the viability of a fetus.

States have been racing to move abortion-related legal guidelines in latest months forward of a pending U.S. Supreme Court ruling that would overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution that banned states from outlawing abortion, the AP reported. At least two dozen Republican-led states have handed laws to ban abortion or severely restrict entry, whereas Democrat-led states have pushed to retain abortion entry.

Colorado was the primary state to decriminalize abortion normally in 1967, the AP reported. The state allowed entry to abortion however didn’t have a assure in state legislation till now.

The Colorado legislation additionally states that fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses don’t have unbiased rights, the AP reported, in response to earlier failed poll initiatives that attempted to limit abortions by giving rights to embryos. In 2014, voters rejected a proposal so as to add unborn people to the state’s felony code, which might have allowed prosecutors to cost somebody with a criminal offense for killing a fetus.

“Colorado has been, is and will be a pro-choice state,” Polis stated earlier than signing the invoice, noting that abortion restrictions elsewhere had been “an enormous government overreach.”

“No matter what the Supreme Court does in the future, people in Colorado will be able to choose when and if they have children,” Polis wrote.

SOURCES

NPR: “The proper to abortion in Colorado is now assured underneath state l