The Colorado Sun's Political Editor, Jesse Paul, joined us to discuss the latest on abortion in the state.
Abortion rights groups are pushing to protect access to the procedure in the Colorado Constitution through a 2024 ballot measure. Colorado passed a bill in 2022 enshrining abortion access with almost no restrictions in state law. So why is this next step necessary?
“Enshrining abortion access in the Colorado Constitution or protecting it through the Constitution is kind of the surefire way to prevent anyone from messing with abortion access in Colorado,” Paul told KUNC.
However, a constitutional amendment must receive at least 55% of the vote to pass. Currently, the 2022 abortion laws could be repealed by a simple majority vote.
One of two draft measures could help defend against that possibility if approved by voters. Both pieces of legislation also aim to allow the use of public funds to pay for abortions.
“This has been a really long term goal for abortion rights groups in Colorado,” Paul said. “One of the other effects it would have is that it would block bills in the legislature and statutory ballot measures from going through. So it's kind of the best line of defense against any restrictions on abortion access in the state.”
The 2022 abortion laws in Colorado were passed under quickly changing circumstances in the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.
“They pushed through a bill in the legislature just to get something on the books as quickly as possible,” Paul said.
Next, the amendment measures will go before the state's Title Board in the Secretary of State's office for language edits and approval. Then abortion rights advocates will set to the grueling, expensive task of collecting 125,000 voter signatures to get the measure approved.
Paul told KUNC abortion rights groups have been on the defensive in Colorado until now.
“They (abortion rights groups) have been trying to block restrictions on abortion access repeatedly, and they've had a lot of success, but they haven't taken a proactive approach,” he said. “And frankly, they haven't really needed to until Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022 by the Supreme Court. So this will be the first test of where voters stand on this.”
