Abortion

Last week, Colorado Republicans opposed a bill that would expand health coverage for maternity and contraception partly on the grounds that some contraception terminates pregnancies rather than preventing them. As the Colorado Independent reported, the Republican lawmakers were missing the forest for the trees. Women on the individual insurance market here are more likely to [...]

The Secretary of State announced Wednesday that Personhood Colorado failed to turn in enough signatures in support of its anti-abortion initiative to place the proposal on the ballot in November. The group has until March 15 to gather roughly 15,000 more signatures.

DENVER– Colorado Springs Christian conservative state Senator Dave Schultheis failed in his bid to redefine fetus-killing First Degree murder Wednesday. His bill, which detractors saw as a back-door attempt to work an anti-abortion “personhood” law onto the books, failed to pass out of committee.

On Friday, Personhood Colorado turned into the Secretary of State 79,817 signatures in support of its initiative– not even 4,000 more than the 76,047 needed to land its proposed anti-abortion “personhood” proposal on the ballot in November. Thousands of signatures are routinely thrown out in the process of validating initiative petitions. The group’s amendment seeks to grant fertilized human eggs the full spectrum of rights enjoyed by U.S. citizens. The difficulty its sponsors seem to have had gathering support suggests the idea they are promoting is no more attractive now to Coloradans than it was in 2008, when they defeated a similar proposal in a landslide vote.

DENVER– In the next few months, as the Kansas-based Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System assumes control of two hospitals in the metro area formerly run by Exempla Healthcare, nearly 40 percent of hospital beds here will be run under directives approved by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. Abortions will be limited to cases where the mother is at risk of death. Reproductive services will also likely be severely curtailed, as will end-of-life care, regardless of legal advance directives authored by patients.

Denver Senator Chris Romer’s revamped medical marijuana bill has won advocates in the legislature and among people in the industry looking for clear rules that they can depend on as they build their businesses. The bill passed easily through committee with some modification Wednesday, but pot users and advocates see the proposed law as overreaching. They say it attempts to address general and anticipated complaints by unnecessarily stepping on specific voter-approved Constitutional rights through restrictions and fees.

Colorado Democratic U.S. Senator Mark Udall said he shared in the willingness Pres. Obama expressed in his State of the Union address tonight to reach across the aisle and work with Republicans to lift health care reform legislation over the last hurdles and make sure it passes into law. Udall told the Colorado Independent that he saw positive signs in the House chamber during the speech that suggested there is willingness on the part of Democrats and Republicans to work together.

The trial of Scott Roeder, the anti-abortion activist who murdered Dr. George Tiller is underway this week at the the Sedgwick County Courthouse in Wichita, Kansas. Reporters are sending out real time dispatches on Twitter. At blogsite RH Reality Check, contributor Carolyn Marie Fugit is writing eyewitness dispatches for publication the next day. Weave [...]

On the ground in the Denver metro area, health care is being reformed for thousands of residents but the changes have nothing to do with pending federal health-care legislation. They come from the private sector. Kansas-based Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System is taking operational control of three hospitals formerly run by Exempla Health [...]

How much are you suffering from recession blues? Enough to take a job driving the Operation Rescue “Truth Truck,” a paneled vehicle covered with billboard-sized posters of aborted fetuses? Qualified candidates will be asked to pilot the vehicles through the districts of conservative Blue Dog Democrats as part of a campaign urging them to vote [...]