Colorado taxpayers will begin footing the bill for abortions for poor women after Governor Jared Polis signed a bill that supporters previously touted as a cost-saving measure, because paying for a birth “is more expensive than an abortion.”
Polis, a Democrat, signed two pro-abortion bills on Thursday, declaring that “Colorado is making sure that we are completely protecting the right to choose,” according to the Denver Post.
Senate Bill 25-183, passed by the state house earlier this month and by the state senate in March, requires Colorado taxpayers to pay for abortions for women on Medicaid or enrolled in the state’s Child Health Plan Plus program. The bill also requires public-employee insurance plans to cover abortions.
It was filed in February, a few months after 62 percent of Colorado voters approved Amendment 79, which made abortion a constitutional right in the state and repealed a prohibition on public funding.
Backers of the legislation called it “historic” and “transformative,” and said it affirms Colorado’s “commitment to the values of equity and fairness in health care.” But supporters also touted it as good fiscal policy, highlighting a fiscal analysis that found that paying to abort more babies could save the state a half million dollars or more annually.
“That saving comes from the averted births that will not occur because abortions happened instead,” House Speaker Julie McCluskie, one of four Democratic sponsors of the bill, said at a hearing last month. “A birth is more expensive than an abortion.”
Opponents of the bill said it was “horrible” to talk about human life that way. “Seriously, the bill’s sponsors are saying that if more babies die by abortion it will be cheaper for the state,” Dr. Catherine Wheeler, a pro-life OB-GYN, said at the hearing.
Critics also took issue with the fiscal analysis, calling it “simplistic” and fundamentally flawed. They say it drastically underestimates the cost of an abortion, particularly later-term procedures, and it underestimates the number of women who will seek taxpayer-funded abortions in a state where they say abortions are already underreported.
Polis on Thursday also signed Senate Bill 25-129, legislation aimed at shielding Colorado providers of abortion and gender-affirming care from out-of-state investigations and criminal actions. Among its provisions, the bill allows providers of abortion pills to leave their names off of prescription labels, and it provides a variety of protections for medical providers against out-of-state investigations, lawsuits, and arrests.
State Senator Faith Winter, one of four Democratic sponsors of the shield law, said it will help Colorado continue to be a “beacon for reproductive freedom.”
“Strengthening our shield law will expand protections for patients, providers, and helpers against interstate criminal and civil threats,” she said, according to the Denver Gazette. “These measures, like prescription label privacy, telehealth protections, and robust legal safeguards, will ensure that Colorado remains a national leader for reproductive health care and freedom.”