Colorado voted Tuesday to preserve abortion access in the state constitution and lifted a 40-year-old ban on using government money to pay for abortions.
Amendment 79, which prohibits any state or local government from denying, impeding or discriminating against the right to abortion access, was passing 60.9% to 39.1% at 8:26 p.m. when The Associated Press called the race.
In Colorado, one of a handful of states where there are no restrictions on when during a pregnancy abortions are allowed, the amendment prevents the legislature from adopting abortion restrictions. Abortion has been legal in Colorado since 1967.
The amendment also strips from the Colorado Constitution a ban on using public money to pay for abortions. That prohibition was passed by Colorado voters in 1984.
This means that insurance plans for Colorado’s tens of thousands of government employees could cover abortions. It will also allow Medicaid, the government insurance plan for those with low incomes, to pay for abortions. Current law allows Medicaid coverage only in cases when a mother’s life is in danger or when the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.
Several other states – including Arizona, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada and South Dakota – have abortion rights measures on the ballot this election. The measures come after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which protected the right to an abortion on a federal level.
The 2022 ruling left abortion up to states. Two years later, more than 25 million women ages 15 to 44, or about 2 in 5 nationally, now live in states where there are more restrictions on abortion access than there were before, according to The Associated Press.
Coloradans for Protecting Reproductive Freedom, a coalition of abortion rights groups, is the main issue committee behind the ballot measure. The group had raised $6.2 million through Oct. 28, according to its latest campaign finance report to the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office. Much of that has come from the Colorado abortion rights nonprofit Cobalt Advocates.
The Pro-Life Colorado Fund, an opposition group, had raised $372,600 as of Oct. 28. The committee is registered at the same address as the Colorado Catholic Conference.
Nancy Entenza, a 60-year-old Democrat from Green Mountain Falls, cast her ballot for Amendment 79. She also voted for Vice President Kamala Harris, saying she is struggling “with the loss of freedoms that women are facing right now.”
“I think it is unfortunate that we have to debate or fight for something that should be a fundamental freedom – a woman’s right to make her own decision,” Entenza told The Colorado Sun. “But if that’s how it is going to be, it needs to be codified.”
Alex Albrecht, a 24-year-old unaffiliated voter in Colorado Springs, voted against the amendment, saying she was more passionate about that vote than any other on her ballot.
“I believe that God cares and thinks about us while we are still in the womb so if God created a life, it’s not for me to end it,” she said. “To know that my tax dollars were funding something that I view is murder, it feels like a violation against life. It’s really hard – at the end of the day, am I still going to pay taxes? Yes. But it’s heartbreaking to say the least.”
Staff writer Olivia Prentzel contributed to this report.
