Colorado Rejects Harmful Abortion Ban

For Immediate Release: November 3, 2020
Media Contacts: [email protected]; 202-918-7768

Statement of The Very Reverend Katherine Ragsdale, President and CEO of the National Abortion Federation (NAF), on the rejection of Proposition 115 in Colorado:

Tonight, voters in Colorado rejected an abortion ban and affirmed that women and families, not politicians, should make decisions about pregnancy and abortion care.

This initiative would have had devastating consequences for people who need abortion care later in pregnancy, and for our member clinic in Boulder. It is not always possible for a person to obtain an abortion as soon as they would like. Every day on our Hotline, we talk to callers who have had to delay their abortion care because they cannot afford it, they have to travel a long distance to a clinic, their state has other restrictions in place aimed at blocking their access to care, or simply because fetal or maternal health issues developed or were detected later in the pregnancy. Some of those callers ultimately travel to Colorado to obtain the abortion care they need. No matter the reason, people should be trusted to make their own decisions without unnecessary interference from politicians.

Proposition 115 was just a steppingstone to banning all abortions. This ballot initiative was pushed by many of the same politicians who have tried to ban abortion outright in Colorado every year for the last decade. And supporters of the initiative publicly stated that they planned to keep introducing other abortion bans if they were successful this year.

Colorado is one of the few states left in the country that leaves reproductive health care decisions up to people and their health care providers, and we are pleased that voters upheld this precedent. We applaud our members and allies in Colorado who spoke out against this harmful initiative and preserved access to the abortion care that people need.

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