A bill to explicitly deny all rights to unborn babies before birth advanced in the Colorado House early Saturday morning despite Republicans’ efforts to stop it.
The Colorado Sun reports Republican lawmakers delayed the bill in a record-breaking 24-hour long debate, but Democrats remained unswayed by their colleagues’ pleas to protect the unborn. They voted 37-20 to advance the bill to a final vote.
“I’m so proud of our Colorado Republicans who fought ALL night and set a record or the longest legislative debate in state history to try and stop the most extreme abortion bill in the nation,” Kristi Burton Brown, chair of the Colorado Republican Party, said in a statement Saturday.
Democrats hold a strong majority in both Colorado houses, and the bill is expected to become law. Gov. Jared Polis, a pro-abortion Democrat, also supports the bill, according to The Sun.
State House Bill 1279 would make abortion a “fundamental right” under state law and deny rights and legal protections to any “fertilized egg, embryo or fetus.” It also would prohibit state and local authorities from “denying, restricting, interfering with, or discriminating against an individual’s fundamental right … to have an abortion in the regulation or provision of benefits, services, information, or facilities.”
Colorado already allows unborn babies to be aborted for any reason up to birth, and it is a destination state for late-term abortions. Democrats argue that the bill simply would reinforce the state’s current abortion laws in response to the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court may overturn Roe v. Wade this year.
Pro-abortion lawmakers also expressed fears about the growing effort to protect unborn babies by banning abortions through city ordinances such as the Sanctuary City for the Unborn movement, The Sun noted.
But Republicans said the bill is so extreme that it could nullify the state parental notification law for minors and deny justice to pregnant mothers and unborn babies who are injured or killed in domestic violence or other crimes.
“That’s what this law is: unbridled abortion,” said Rep. Rod Bockenfeld, R-Arapahoe County, according to the report.
ACTION ALERT: Contact members of the Colorado Senate and urge them to oppose this pro-abortion bill.
Hundreds of pro-lifers protested Saturday outside the Capitol, cheering on Republican lawmakers and chanting, “Protect women, protect life!”
After the vote, state Rep. Dave Williams, R-Colorado Springs, told the crowd that they could not stop the bill, but they have not given up the fight, CBN News reports.
“We did this for you, we did this for the babies, we did this for the unborn children who are in the womb. We did what we could, but the fight’s not over,” Williams said. “This is literally a bill about life and death. The individual, that human being inside that womb is life, and that life should be protected.”
A final vote in the state House may be held Monday. Then, the bill would move to the state Senate for consideration.
According to The Centennial Institute, the bill will:
Colorado is very liberal politically, and pro-life advocates have had a difficult time passing any pro-life laws there. Even fetal homicide laws to punish criminals who kill unborn babies in situations unrelated to abortion have been rejected repeatedly by the state legislature.
It is one of the few states with no limits on abortions, and abortionists openly advertise abortions in the third trimester. In 2020, state voters rejected a ballot measure that would have protected viable, pain-capable unborn babies by banning late-term abortions after 22 weeks of pregnancy.
ACTION ALERT: Contact members of the Colorado Senate and urge them to oppose this pro-abortion bill.
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