Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill Monday legalizing abortion as a “right” in the state…up until birth.
The Reproductive Health Equity Act prohibits local and state governments from enacting laws intended to “deny, restrict, interfere with or discriminate against an individual’s fundamental right to use or refuse contraception or to continue a pregnancy and give birth or to have an abortion,” the Daily Caller reports.
“A pregnant individual has a fundamental right to continue a pregnancy and give birth or to have an abortion and to make decisions about how to exercise that right,” the law states. “A fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus does not have independent or derivative rights under the laws of this state.”
“Access to abortion and reproductive health care is currently under attack across the nation,” it continues. “Impending federal court cases…jeopardize access to legal abortion care for tens of millions of people, particularly those living in most Southern and Midwestern states.”
The Colorado legislature argued that access to abortion up until birth allows Colorado residents “to pursue personal, educational, financial, and familial goals” and “decrease the health and socioeconomic disparities disproportionately faced by people of color and people with low incomes.”
“Politically motivated, medically inappropriate restrictions on health care have no place in our statutes or our medical offices,” the law states.
“No matter what the Supreme Court does in the future, people, women in Colorado will be able to choose when and if they have children,” Polis said at Monday’s bill signing ceremony. “We want to make sure that our state is a place where everyone can live and work and thrive and raise a family on their own terms.”
