Colorado voters will decide in November whether to protect abortion access in the state Constitution after elections officials Friday verified signatures collected for a ballot measure backed by abortion-rights groups.
The initiative would also lift the state’s nearly 40-year-old constitutional ban on state money being used to pay for abortions.
Democrats in the state Legislature passed a bill in 2022 guaranteeing abortion access in state law. But that measure could be overturned or undermined by a simple majority vote in the General Assembly, or by the passage of a statutory ballot measure, which also only requires a simple majority to pass.
Initiative 89 would go a step further by putting the nearly unfettered right to get an abortion in Colorado in the state’s Constitution, which, if passed, could only be overturned by a 55% vote of the people.
The measure also requires the support of 55% of voters to pass.
To get on the ballot, supporters of Initiative 89 had to collect signatures from about 125,000 Colorado voters, including at least 2% of the registered voters in each of Colorado’s 35 state Senate districts.
The measure says that the government “shall not deny, impede, or discriminate against the exercise of the right to abortion, including prohibiting health insurance coverage for abortion.”
Abortion access is already effectively unrestricted in Colorado. Other than the constitutional ban on public money being used to pay for abortions, the only real barrier to access is a law that requires health care providers to notify a parent or guardian of a minor at least 48 hours before the child is scheduled to get an abortion.
Colorado has become a haven for people living in other parts of the country where there are strict limits on when a pregnancy can be terminated. The restrictions proliferated and became more stringent after the U.S. Supreme Court last year overturned Roe v. Wade, the court’s 1973 decision protecting the right to an abortion without excessive government restriction.
More than 25 million women ages 15 to 44, or about 2 in 5 nationally, now live in states where there are more restrictions on abortion access than there were before, according to The Associated Press.
“In this time of uncertainty, we need to secure abortion rights and access in the Colorado Constitution, beyond the reach of politics and politicians. This initiative will secure that right for present and future generations,” Karen Middleton, president of the Colorado abortion-rights group Cobalt, said in a written statement Friday.
Cobalt was a part of Coloradans for Protecting Reproductive Freedom, the umbrella group backing Initiative 89. It gathered signatures both by using paid circulators and volunteers.
The Colorado Reproductive Health Rights and Justice Coalition also includes the ACLU of Colorado, Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights, Interfaith Alliance of Colorado, New Era Colorado, Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, and ProgressNow Colorado.
Amendment 3, Colorado’s constitutional prohibition on state dollars being used to pay for abortions, was narrowly passed by voters in 1984. Among its effects, the amendment blocked Medicaid recipients and state employees from having their abortions covered by their insurance.
This year’s general election will be held Nov. 5.
