
CV NEWS FEED // Democrats for Life in Colorado presented a strategy for helping pregnant women socially in light of the disproportionate number of late-term abortions following Colorado’s protection of abortion as a right in 2022.
“Whether you are pro-life or pro-choice, you should be alarmed at the rapidly rising abortion rate in Colorado,” Kathleen Houston and Thomas J. Perille, M.D., members of Democrats for Life of Colorado, wrote in an opinion piece for the Denver Gazette:
The fact that hundreds of healthy Colorado women choose every year to have post-viability abortions on their healthy fetuses is an indictment of our safety-net and health care systems…
Pregnancy resource centers can provide important support to these abortion-vulnerable women, but public policy and programs should better reflect our values. Women should never feel forced to pursue an abortion because of financial and social challenges.
The article noted that there has been a 19% increase in abortions in Colorado in the past two years, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
“There is evidence that two-thirds of women feel their abortion was unwanted, coerced, or otherwise inconsistent with their values and preferences,” Houston and Perille continued. “This means that while we might be streamlining abortion access in our state, we are doing nothing to address the social and financial factors that are driving the abortion decision. A ‘choice’ is only a choice if women feel they have more than one option.”
The authors further argued that there are public health reasons why people should be concerned about the rising abortion rate. Colorado has a disproportionately high number of late-term abortions, which are less safe.
“Even though abortion in the first trimester is relatively safe compared with other out-patient procedures, the risk of dying from an abortion increases 38% for every additional week of gestation after eight weeks,” Houston and Perille noted. “And in Colorado, we have a disproportionate number of late abortions — 10.5% after the first trimester and 3.4% (487) after 21 weeks, which is the limit of fetal viability. This poses a very high risk to the health and life of women.”
Houston and Perille argue that in order to pursue “gender-based equity,” Coloradans should make efforts to “minimize the impact those [biological] differences have” on women in their careers and physical health. The two referenced Prop 118, which Colorado voters endorsed in 2020. The proposition established paid family and maternity leave.
“This is a prototypical example of this alternative approach. But there is much more that can be done,” Houston and Perille wrote.
The two further promoted making birth “free” and increasing prenatal and postpartum care, among other things, to address the social issue.