The House Judiciary Committee for the State of Colorado on Tuesday passed SB23-188, a bill to protect both abortion access and gender-affirming care in the state. Last year, Colorado passed HB 22-1279, the Reproductive Health Equity Act (RHEA), which ensured abortion access in the state while also protecting the right to choose or refuse contraception and guaranteed that fetuses don’t have legal rights under state law.
The new bill seeks to protect those rights from other states. In the process, it also provides the same guarantees regarding gender-affirming care. According to the Colorado Legislature website, SB23-188 already passed the Senate on March 22 and now faces a general vote in the House.
State Representative Meg Froelich (D-Greenwood Village), who is a sponsor of the bill, told 9News that the bill was introduced in response to the Supreme Court of the United States overturning Roe v. Wade. Because of that, abortion laws now vary by state. That means that some people are traveling across state lines to gain access to reproductive healthcare. This leaves Colorado-based providers vulnerable.
“Our doctors and providers are treating patients from a whole host of states; we want to make sure someone from those states can’t reach into Colorado and sue, remove licensure, put out a business, invade privacy, a whole host of tactics that are being deployed to make sure that these services are not provided,” Froelich tells the local NBC affiliate.
However, according to a press release put out by the Colorado House Democrats, the bill’s protections are broad enough to cover gender-affirming care for transgender patients. This means that it could also protect providers offering care to help transgender patients transition. According to the latest numbers from the Trans Legislation Tracker, 489 anti-trans bills have been introduced in legislative sessions so far in 2023 across 47 different states. The only states not to introduce such legislation so far this year have been New York, Delaware, and–surprisingly enough–Alabama.
According to an article in The Appeal, this is a record number of anti-trans bills, and that’s not an accident. Asaf Orr of the California Civic Rights Department described the bills as a “centrally coordinated effort.” Orr goes on to explain, “Conservative political organizations, conservative religious organizations have put together a package of bills for state legislatures to consider and have really worked to find legislators in states across the country to introduce those bills.” If SB23-188 passes, Colorado could become one of the safest states for access to reproductive and transgender healthcare.