Fifty-one years after the landmark — but since overturned — Roe v. Wade ruling was handed down, U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo on Monday unveiled a bill she plans to introduce in Congress that’s aimed at increasing access to abortion.
Separately, abortion-rights advocates seized on the anniversary and gathered at the State Capitol to kick off their campaign to place an amendment on Colorado’s ballot that would enshrine the right to an abortion in the state constitution. The long-planned ballot measure, which is now entering the petitioning phase for the Nov. 5 election, would elevate protections now contained in Colorado law.
Caraveo’s new bill likely faces the more difficult path, with Republicans in majority control of the U.S. House. It proposes the creation of a grant program to increase health care access for abortion and reproductive care in states like Colorado where the procedure is still legal.
The Abortion Care Enhancement and Support Services Act of 2024 would provide federal funding for hospitals and clinics in those states to meet the demand for abortion services from residents and people coming in from out of state. Caraveo, a Democrat from Thornton, is a physician herself and is sponsoring the legislation with Reps. Judy Chu of California, Veronica Escobar of Texas and Sara Jacobs of California.
Caraveo, a first-term representative who is running for reelection this year in Colorado’s battleground 8th Congressional District, made the announcement during a roundtable discussion in the afternoon with other medical providers and abortion policy advocates. They detailed struggles to get people in for care, patients’ fears of criminalization and the difficulties faced by fewer providers in meeting the demand for abortion services.
The U.S. Supreme Court overruled its prior decisions establishing the right to abortion, including the Roe decision, in June 2022 in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The decision allowed states to decide whether to restrict when abortions can be performed or ban the procedure completely — as 14 states have done.
The decision has resulted in an influx of out-of-state residents seeking services in states, including Colorado, that have no gestational restrictions and which border states with bans or severe restrictions.
Wait times for abortion care have increased and resources have been stretched. Last year, an abortion fund established through reproductive rights advocacy organization Cobalt spent $1.25 million on assistance for abortions or logistical and travel support for patients, according to spokesperson Laura Chapin.
That’s six times what the fund spent in 2021, prior to the Dobbs decision.
“The fact that we are practicing medicine in an environment where … patients don’t have the same rights that they had when we were training in medical school is something that I don’t think I ever truly anticipated, even though those rights have been under attack for a very long time,” Caraveo said during the roundtable event.
The bill she’s sponsoring, she said, aims to tackle one part of the issue — the strain on states where abortion is still legal.
During her time in the Colorado legislature, Caraveo supported bills that expanded reproductive access — including one that provided free contraception to immigrants who are undocumented — and protected abortion access. In Congress, she has co-sponsored a bill to protect abortion in federal law.
Colorado lawmakers passed a law in 2022 in anticipation of the Dobbs decision that ensured the right to an abortion was guaranteed in state law. The legislature also passed laws protecting patients and providers from repercussions for providing or receiving care.
Earlier on Monday, the campaign kick-off event at the Capitol put the focus on advocates’ effort to pass the state constitutional amendment. In addition to elevating the state’s legal protections, it would remove a funding ban that prevents employees with public insurance, such as teachers and firefighters, from using it to cover abortions.
Advocates were flanked by state and local elected leaders, and the speakers included U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen and Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, both Democrats.
“We have an opportunity now to build a future that serves us even more than our past did, and we have a tenet and movement to guide us — and that is reproductive justice,” said Dusti Gurule, a co-chair of the campaign and president of the group Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights.
Gurule donned a shirt that said, “access to abortion throughout pregnancy for everyone: no exceptions, no restrictions, no discrimination.”
To place Initiative 89 on the ballot, organizers say they must collect at least 124,238 valid signatures by April 26. Those must include 2% of the total voters in each state Senate district. Once on the ballot, a constitutional amendment must receive support from 55% of voters to pass.
Meanwhile, a campaign seeking to ban abortion in state law is also underway. The backers of Initiative 81 have until April 18 to collect the required petition signatures. Colorado voters have repeatedly rejected attempts to restrict abortion at the ballot box, and in 2022, a similar campaign failed to collect enough signatures.
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