Emergency Contraception

Kristi Burton, the tireless force behind Colorado’s Amendment 48, was the toast of the nation’s antiabortion elite at the American Life League annual conference Friday. So much so that they even swiped the ballot measure’s “personhood” moniker as the confab’s title.

As late as Friday, the Bush administration was still implementing midnight regulations — and we’re still bird-dogging them. Today’s update includes two additions to our chart and a decision from the Environmental Protection Agency that concerns a rule on a contaminant found in drinking water.

Lawmakers and reproductive health advocates are in full court press to repeal an 11th-hour Bush Administration rule that threatens women’s health care set to go into effect Tuesday — hours before President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration.

Following on U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette’s push to repeal the controversial healthcare worker “conscience clause” rule being rushed through by the Bush Administration, the Denver Democrat is pairing up with a big political gun and abortion foe, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), to promote women’s reproductive care in a rare common ground approach.

Expanding on Mike Lillis’ story today on Capitol Hill Democrats’ attempts to repeal the 11th hour Bush Administration “conscience clause” rule that threatens women’s reproductive health care, 13 states are planning a federal court challenge should political remedies fail.

It’s not often that Colorado is considered a less progressive state than its wild and woolley neighbor to the north, Wyoming.

On the matter of contraception, the Centennial State has a long way to go to catch up to the efforts of its fellow intermountain west states in preventing unintended pregnancies — especially among poor women [...]

Trotting out the pejorative “Colobama” to describe Colorado’s poor ranking on some quality of life yardstick generally evokes snickers of derision until one realizes that we really are getting the pants beat off of us on a whole host of social measures.

Suddenly, it’s not so funny any more that Alabama and other states — long [...]

Although the Food and Drug Administration approved the sale of emergency contraception without a prescription last year, that doesn’t mean it’s always available at pharmacies, as Colorado Confidential reported in November. Now, U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-New York, has introduced a bill that would require all pharmacies that stock any form of contraception to also [...]

Sen. Betty Boyd will finally see a bill become law today that she’s worked for four years to get passed. Gov. Ritter will sign Senate Bill 60, which requires hospitals to give sexual assault victims information about emergency contraception. Boyd has introduced similar measures in past years, but the closest such a bill came to [...]

A bill that would require hospitals to tell rape victims about emergency contraception moved one step closer to becoming law today as Senate Bill 60 passed unanimously through the House Health & Human Services Committee. It will now go before the full House. The state Senate voted in favor of the bill Jan. 30 by [...]