Pro-life group warns Colorado abortion law may lead to infanticide
Pro-life organizations are denouncing a new law in Colorado that allows women to get an abortion up to the moment of birth and denies the rights of pre-born babies.
Gov. Jared Polis signed House Bill 22-1279 on Monday, which “affirms the fundamental right of individual Coloradans to make their own reproductive health-care decisions.”
“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,” reads the legislation, in part. “A fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus does not have independent or derivative rights under the laws of this state.”
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The law goes on to say that “a public entity” cannot “deny, restrict, interfere with, or discriminate against an individual’s fundamental right to … have an abortion in the regulation or provision of benefits, facilities, services, or information.”
“A public entity shall not … deprive, through prosecution, punishment, or other means, an individual of the individual’s right to act or refrain from acting during the individual’s own pregnancy based on the potential, actual, or perceived impact on the pregnancy, the pregnancy’s outcomes, or on the pregnant individual’s health,” the law continued.
The group Colorado for Life denounced the law as radically extreme and condemned it for stripping the rights of unborn babies.
“Against the will of Coloradans across the state who contacted their elected officials, Polis and the radical abortion extremists in our state legislature have ignored us yet again,” said Colorado for Life in a statement on its Facebook page after the bill was signed.
“Polis signed HB 1279 into law this afternoon. This means that … preborn have no legal rights under Colorado law. … Babies will lose their lives simply because of a disability, or for being the ‘wrong’ gender or race. … More babies will lose their lives who could otherwise survive outside of the womb.”
“Abortion tourism will increase, resulting in the murder of preborn babies from all over the country taking place here in Colorado,” the pro-life group added.
Noah Brandt, director of Government Affairs at Live Action, raised concerns that the wording of the law, namely the “pregnancy’s outcomes” comment, might create a means through which infanticide can be legal.
“Under the rules proposed by this bill, if a child is delivered alive during an abortion the doctors are under no legal compulsion to provide standard medical care as they would in any other circumstance and attempt to preserve the child’s life,” said Brandt in a statement shared with The Christian Post on Monday.
“Medical providers would listen to the mother’s instructions, which could include not providing life-sustaining medical care to the child, which would lead to the child’s death, which most reasonable people would consider infanticide,” Brandt added.
Recently, many have speculated that the United States Supreme Court will soon overturn the controversial 1973 decision Roe v. Wade, which struck down laws restricting abortion before fetal viability.
As a result, several states have passed laws that either codify the Roe decision or are “trigger” measures that will effectively ban abortion once Roe is overturned.
In December, the Supreme Court heard arguments in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which centered on whether Mississippi could enforce a law banning most abortions after 15 weeks into a pregnancy.
