Jared Polis, the Democrat Governor of Colorado, has officially signed into law a highly controversial abortion bill that codifies access to abortion
Commonly known as the “Reproductive Health Equity Act,” the bill specifically codifies into law the idea that a fetus does not have any human rights whatsoever prior to its birth.
The law stipulates:
A FERTILIZED EGG, EMBRYO, OR FETUS DOES NOT HAVE INDEPENDENT OR DERIVATIVE RIGHTS UNDER THE LAWS OF THIS STATE.
One summary of the new bill issues an explanation that states that it bans all state and local public entities from taking steps to interfere in any way in the reproductive decisions of a woman,m most especially regarding abortion.
It highlights that the bill “prohibits state and local public entities” from “Denying, restricting, interfering with, or discriminating against an individual’s fundamental right to use or refuse contraception or to continue a pregnancy and give birth or to have an abortion in the regulation or provision of benefits, services, information, or facilities” and that “Depriving, 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.”
It was stated in a release from Polis concerning the bill, “In the State of Colorado, the serious decision to start or end a pregnancy with medical assistance will remain between a person, their doctor, and their faith.” The state will not take action to intervene on behalf of any unborn person, due to the fact that in the state of Colorado they are not legally defined as a person.
Polis also brought light to the point that the “bill does not make any changes to the current legal framework for parental notification that exists in state law.”
As reported by 9News, “The Colorado Parental Notification Act requires parents of minors to be notified at least 48 hours prior to a pending abortion. … Even a parent is notified of a minor’s abortion and objects, the decision to receive an abortion still rests with the minor. The law only requires that the parent be notified.”
All throughout the text of the law, there are many direct references to Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which is a case from Mississippi that the Supreme Court is slated to rule over this upcoming summer that has a chance to outright reverse Roe v. Wade.
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