This week, pro-abortion Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins revealed that she would be open to "discussions" over passing legislation that would codify Americans' right to abortion. But, previously, Collins did not support the Women's Health Protection Act (WHPA), a Democrat-led bill that would codify precedents set by Roe v. Wade into federal law. However, Democrats in another blue state are reportedly working to codify the right to abortion into state law.
Colorado Democrats are reportedly working to "enshrine abortion rights in state law even if Roe v. Wade is overturned," Colorado-based outlet the Longmont Times-Call reported Thursday.
This week's Supreme Court case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, was the catalyst. On Wednesday, the Court heard oral arguments for the case, which surrounds a 15-week abortion ban in Mississippi. Dobbs has the potential to overturn the landmark case Roe which gave American women the right to abortion.
On Wednesday, the day of the Supreme Court hearing, the group of Colorado Democrats signed a proclamation to uphold residents' rights to abortion. Next year, the Times-Call reports, they will introduce a bill to codify abortion rights into state law.
"Coloradans have affirmed over and over again that politics has no place in private medical decisions that belong between a pregnant person, their family, and their provider," State Democratic Rep. Meg Froelich said in a press release obtained by the Times-Call. "Four times we have rejected political attempts to ban abortion on the ballot. It's time to stop playing defense and move Colorado beyond the bans."
A spokesperson for Cobalt, a Colorado abortion rights group, said that while the state doesn't have laws restricting access to abortion, it does not have laws protecting access.
"We're looking at a proactive bill to protect abortion access here in Colorado because, clearly, the courts are not going to protect us anymore," spokesperson Laura Chapin stated, according to the Times-Call.
As Axios reported in October, many states, such as New York and California, have state laws protecting abortion access. California, as I covered, is reportedly working to boost the state's "abortion infrastructure" to accommodate more out-of-state patients.
"California is getting ready to become the nation's abortion provider," the Los Angeles Times stated in their report, noting that California abortion clinics can "expect up to 50 out-of-state patients a week if the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority guts abortion rights nationally."
