The editorial headlined Fund LARC (Herald, Dec. 8) clearly described the choice facing the upcoming second session of Colorado’s 70th General Assembly: Vote intelligently to fund long-acting reversible contraception and support a program that yielded enormous social and economic benefits to Coloradans or vote unintelligently against LARC and do yet another disservice to your electorate and your state.
I greatly appreciate the Herald editorial and would like to point readers to an earlier and more detailed description of the killing of HB 1194, the first 2015 LARC funding bill, earlier this year. This was authored by Katha Pollitt and appeared in the June 8 issue of The Nation, pages 10-11, available at Durango Public Library or at TheNation.com. (It wasn’t only for the Animas River that Colorado earned national infamy in 2015.)
Pollitt noted that each dollar spent in this 5-year effort saved the state “$5.85 in short-term Medicaid costs, in addition to other cost reductions and the enormous social benefit of freeing low-income teens from unwanted pregnancies and what too often follows: dropping out of school, unready motherhood and poverty.”
And to give credit where it is due, Rep. Don Coram, R-Montrose, of House District 58 was one of three courageous and intelligent sponsors of HB 1194. The others were Rep. K.C. Becker, D-Boulder, of House District 13 and Sen. Mary Hodge, D-Brighton, of Senate District 25. Three cheers to these three leaders in genuine governance. Colorado has plenty of other political brains and backbones as strong as theirs.
The question is: Will those others join these three leaders in making the right choice for Colorado on their second opportunity?
Maybe they’ll only need a backbone. As Don Coram said, “It’s a no-brainer.”
Tom Dahmer
Durango
