Abortion in Colorado is legal at all stages of pregnancy. It is one of seven states without any term restrictions as to when a pregnancy can be terminated.[1]
Outpatient abortion is available up to 26 weeks. In addition, medically indicated termination of pregnancy up to 34 weeks is also an option for conditions such as fetal anomalies, genetic disorder, fetal demise and/or severe medical problems.[2]
59% of adults said in a 2014 Pew Research Center poll that abortion should be legal in all or most cases and 36% said it should be illegal in all or most cases.[3] In 1962, the American Law Institute published their model penal code as it applied to abortions with three circumstances where they believed a physician could justifiably perform an abortion. A version of this was enacted into law in 1967. Colorado became the first state to decriminalize abortion in cases of rape, incest, or in which pregnancy would lead to permanent physical disability of the woman.
In state politics, the Colorado Democratic Party largely support access to abortion while the Colorado Republican Party have embraced hardline anti-abortion stances which have included proposing laws to restrict or even ban abortion in the state.[4] [5]
In 1962, the American Law Institute published their model penal code, as it applied to abortions, with three circumstances where they believed a physician could justifiably perform an abortion: "If ... there is substantial risk that the continuance of the pregnancy would gravely impair the physical or mental health of the mother, or that the child would be born with grave physical or mental defect, or that the pregnancy resulted from rape, incest, or other felonious intercourse." In 1967, Colorado became the first state to apply this into law. In the late 1960s, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Oregon made reforms to their abortion laws, with most of these states providing more detailed medical guidance on when therapeutic abortions could be performed. In 1967, Colorado became the first state to decriminalize abortion in cases of rape, incest, or in which pregnancy would lead to permanent physical disability of the woman.[6] [7] In 1978, the state of Colorado had set aside Medicaid funding to provide poor women abortions if they needed one. The parents of Becky Bell worked against proposed parental notification laws in Colorado in 1998.[8]
The Colorado Amendment 48 initiative was proposed in 2008 jointly by Kristine Burton and Michael Burton[9] of Colorado for Equal Rights.[10] Colorado Right to Life supported the amendment.[11] There was bipartisan opposition.[12] The text would have said, "Section 31. Person defined. AS USED IN SECTIONS 3, 6, AND 25 OF ARTICLE II OF THE STATE CONSTITUTION, THE TERMS "PERSON" OR "PERSONS" SHALL INCLUDE ANY HUMAN BEING FROM THE MOMENT OF FERTILIZATION."[13] This definition would have applied to all sections of Colorado law, thus giving a fetus the equal rights of life, liberty, and property as a fully developed, born person would.[14]
In 2013, the state was one of five where the legislature introduced a bill that would have banned abortion in almost all cases. It did not pass.[15] This was repeated in 2014, where Colorado was one of three where the legislature unsuccessful tried to ban abortion. They repeated this in 2015, where the state was one of five. Again, this happened in 2016 where Colorado was one of four where the legislature introduced a bill that would have banned abortion in almost all cases. In 2017, the state was one of six trying to unsuccessfully banning abortion. The next year, Colorado was one of eleven where the legislature introduced a bill that would have banned abortion in almost all cases. It did not pass. In 2019, women in Colorado were eligible for temporary disability as a result of abortion or miscarriage.[16] [17]
During the 2022 legislative session, Colorado Republicans proposed several bills that aimed to restrict or even criminalize abortion in the state. The bills were ultimately blocked by Democrats, who hold a majority in the state legislature.
On April 4, 2022, Governor Jared Polis signed the Reproductive Health Equity Act, which guarantees access to reproductive care and affirms the rights of pregnant women to continue or terminate a pregnancy. The act prohibits public entities from restricting or denying those rights.[18] [19]The US Supreme Court's decision in 1973's Roe v. Wade ruling meant the state could no longer regulate abortion in the first trimester.[20] However, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, later in 2022.[21] [22]
Colorado Amendment 48 was an initiative in 2008 to amend the definition of a person to "any human being from the moment of fertilization." On November 4, 2008, the initiative was turned down by 73.2 percent of the voters.[23]
Colorado Proposition 115 was a 2020 ballot initiative preventing abortion after 22 weeks unless the pregnancy endangered the mother's life. Performing an abortion after 22 weeks would have become a Class 1 misdemeanor. On November 3, 2020, Colorado voters rejected Proposition 115, with 59% of voters opposed to the initiative.[24]
On April 18, 2024, Coloradans For Protecting Reproductive Freedom submitted nearly double the signatures required to put abortion rights on the ballot in Colorado in the November 2024 elections. Initiative 89 would enshrine the right to abortion in the Colorado state constitution.[25]
See also: Abortion clinic. Between 1982 and 1992, the number of abortion clinics in the state decreased by fourteen, going from 73 in 1982 to 59 in 1992.[26] In 2014, there were 21 abortion clinics in the state.[27] In 2014, 78% of the counties in the state did not have an abortion clinic. That year, 27% of women in the state aged 15 – 44 lived in a county without an abortion clinic.[28]
In March 2016, there were 21 Planned Parenthood clinics in the state.[29] After Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains switched from directly billing women to directly billing Medicaid in 2016, they ran into funding bills as Medicaid has low reimbursement rates. Consequently, they were forced to close two clinics in Colorado and one in Wyoming in July 2017. In 2017, there were nineteen Planned Parenthood clinics, of which eleven offered abortion services, in a state with a population of 1,278,937 women aged 15–49.[30]
In 1990, 426,000 women in the state faced the risk of an unintended pregnancy.[26] Since the start of the 2008 Colorado Family Planning Initiative, the number of abortions performed in the state fell by nearly half for women between the ages of 15–19. For women aged 20–24, the rate of abortions declined by 18%. For teens aged 15–19, the birth and abortion rate in Colorado between 2009 and 2014 declined around 50%. For women aged 20–24, the abortion rate declined by 20%. In 2010, the state had no publicly funded abortions.[31] In 2013, there were 700 abortions for white women aged 15–19, 110 abortions for black women aged 15–19, 470 abortions for Hispanic women aged 15–19, and 90 abortions for women of all other races.[32]
In 2014, 59% of adults said in a poll by the Pew Research Center that abortion should be legal and 36% saying it should be illegal in all or most cases.[33] In 2017, the state had an infant mortality rate of 4.5 deaths per 1,000 live births.[34] From 2009 to 2017, the rate of teenage abortions in the state fell by 64%.[35]
| Number | Rate | % change 1992–1996 | ||||||
| 1992 | 1995 | 1996 | 1992 | 1995 | 1996 | |||
| US Total | 1,528,930 | 1,363,690 | 1,365,730 | 25.9 | 22.9 | 22.9 | –12 | |
| Mountain | 69,600 | 63,390 | 67,020 | 21 | 17.9 | 18.6 | –12 | |
| Arizona | 20,600 | 18,120 | 19,310 | 24.1 | 19.1 | 19.8 | –18 | |
| Colorado | 19,880 | 15,690 | 18,310 | 23.6 | 18 | 20.9 | –12 | |
| Idaho | 1,710 | 1,500 | 1,600 | 7.2 | 5.8 | 6.1 | –15 | |
| Montana | 3,300 | 3,010 | 2,900 | 18.2 | 16.2 | 15.6 | –14 | |
| Nevada | 13,300 | 15,600 | 15,450 | 44.2 | 46.7 | 44.6 | 1 | |
| New Mexico | 6,410 | 5,450 | 5,470 | 17.7 | 14.4 | 14.4 | –19 | |
| Utah | 3,940 | 3,740 | 3,700 | 9.3 | 8.1 | 7.8 | –16 | |
| Wyoming | 460 | 280 | 280 | 4.3 | 2.7 | 2.7 | –37 | |
| Residence | Occurrence | % obtained by out-of-state residents | Year | Ref | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Rate^ | Ratio^^ | No. | Rate^ | Ratio^^ | |||||
| Colorado | 19,880 | 23.6 | ||||||||
| Colorado | 15,690 | 18 | ||||||||
| Colorado | 18,310 | 20.9 | ||||||||
| Colorado | 9,453 | 8.7 | 144 | 10,648 | 9.8 | 162 | 11.3 | 2014 | [36] | |
| Colorado | 8,975 | 8.1 | 135 | 10,114 | 9.1 | 152 | 11.3 | 2015 | [37] | |
| Colorado | 7,363 | 6.6 | 111 | 8,333 | 7.4 | 125 | 11.4 | 2016 | [38] | |
| ^number of abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44; ^^number of abortions per 1,000 live births | ||||||||||
In 2008, Colorado's Department of Public Health and Environment was provided with private funds to provide poor women in the state with long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs) at little or no cost to them.[39] From 2009 to 2017, free, low-cost IUDs resulted in a 54% decline in the rate of teenage pregnancy in the state.
In the period between 1972 and 1974, there were zero recorded illegal abortion deaths in the state.[40] During the winter of 1978, three women in less than a month required hospitalization in Denver after consuming pennyroyal oil for the purpose of trying to induce an abortion. One of these women died.[41]
Women from the state participated in marches supporting abortion rights as part of a #StoptheBans movement in May 2019.[42]
Following the Roe v. Wade overturn draft leak on May 2, 2022, there were abortion rights demonstrations in Aspen,[43] Colorado Springs,[44] Denver,[45] Fort Collins,[46] and Grand Junction.[47]
Following the overturn of Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022, an abortion rights protest was held outside the Colorado State Capitol in Denver.[48]
Several hundred anti-abortion activists participate in the Rocky Mountain March for Life in Colorado each year to support ending abortion.[49]
Respect Life Denver also organizes an annual rally and march in the state capitol each year to support legislation against abortion.[50]
In late 2022, four out of seven council members of the city of Pueblo voted to consider a measure that would ban abortion within the city. The proposed ordinance was the work of a Texas-based anti-abortion group which was introduced by council member Regina Maestri.[51] The proposed measure would break state laws surrounding abortion protections while observers said the measure might inspire other cities or towns throughout Colorado to attempt to ban or restrict abortions.[52] The measure was narrowly rejected by the council.[53]
An incident of anti-abortion violence occurred at an abortion clinic in Denver, Colorado on August 26, 2003.[54]
Between 1993 and 2015, 11 people were killed at American abortion clinics.[55] On November 29, 2015, a shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado, left three dead and several injured, and a suspect, Robert L. Dear, was apprehended.[56] [57] [58] [59] Police officer and pastor Garrett Swasey, US Iraq War veteran Ke'Arre M. Stewart, and Hawaiian Jennifer Markovsky, who was accompanying a friend at the clinic, were killed. The suspect had previously acted against other clinics, and referred to himself as a "warrior for the babies" at his hearing.[60] [61] Neighbors and former neighbors described the suspect as "reclusive", and police from several states where the suspect resided described a history of run-ins dating from at least 1997. On May 11, 2016, the court declared the suspect incompetent to stand trial after a mental evaluation was completed.[62]