Anti-Abortion Initiative Clears Hurdle In Colorado With State Title Board

By Sara Wilson, Colorado Newsline

February 17, 2022

Anti-abortion activists in Colorado can now collect voter signatures to place a statewide initiative that aims to criminalize most abortions on the November ballot.

Initiative No. 56 would make it illegal to “murder a child … at any time prior to, during, or after birth” with exceptions for when the mother’s or child’s health is in danger, the fetus is no longer living or the pregnancy is ectopic, according to a title approved by the state Title Board on Wednesday.

The proposed statute text defines murder as “using or prescribing any instrument, medicine, drug, or any other substance, device, or means, and causing death.”

It is a successful second attempt by designated representatives Angela Eicher and Rebecca Greenwood to get a designated title for the initiative. In January, the board rejected a similar proposal on technical grounds.

Eicher and Greenwood explained to the board that the initiative would mean that current penalties for murder would not “discriminate against the level of development” of the child.

Some board members were skeptical about how the statute would play out in real life, but noted the limited role of the board.

“I’m not sure I fully understand, if this were adopted, how it would apply to the law. But that’s not for us,” said Julie Pelegrin, who represents the Office of Legislative Legal Services.

In a review and comment of the initiative, legislative council staff point out that the United States Supreme Court recognizes a woman’s right to abortion and questions whether the initiative would conflict with that precedent. That question was not brought up during the title board hearing and neither designated representative addressed it.

This is very much a personhood measure.

– Laura Chapin, communications consultant with Cobalt

The Title Board sets the descriptions of ballot initiatives, determining if they contain a single subject matter and the title encompasses the central points. After a title is set and there aren’t any objections filed, proponents can start gathering the 124,632 signatures needed to get the initiative on the ballot.

Reproductive rights advocates call the initiative an attempt to enact a so-called personhood statute, which codifies the belief that life begins at conception.

“This is very much a personhood measure,” said Laura Chapin, a communications consultant with Cobalt, a nonprofit that advocates for abortion access.

“(It’s) intended to outright ban all abortions,” added Cobalt political director Selina Najar.

Chapin and Najar said the title setting has made them huddle up with a coalition of abortion access groups to plan strategy, including working to get the Reproductive Health Equity Act passed in the General Assembly. That legislation would ensure that individuals have a right to choose whether to get an abortion and assert that an embryo or fetus does not have individual rights in the state.

Anti-abortion activists have tried to ban abortion through the ballot six times since 2008, most recently in a defeated 2020 proposition that aimed to ban abortion after 22 weeks.

“My biggest takeaway from this is that they’re not going to stop. It’s flagrantly unconstitutional,” Najar. “They want to ban all abortions, like this is what they want.”

She thinks that even if Initiative #56 lands on the ballot, Colorado voters will defeat it just like they have in the past.

Neither Eicher nor Greenwood responded to a request for comment following the hearing.

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