DENVER, Colorado (LifeSiteNews) — Colorado’s actively homosexual pro-abortion Democrat governor signed three bills this week to secure access to abortion and mutilating “sex change” surgeries. One piece of legislation also cracks down on advertising and services offered by pro-life pregnancy centers.
On Friday, Gov. Jared Polis enacted three new laws introduced by the widely Democrat-led legislature, each undermining the dignity of human life and pushing left-wing agendas while simultaneously seeking to more strictly regulate organizations which provide life-affirming alternatives to the very crimes held up by the Colorado legislature.
Increased conformity with ‘sex change’ and abortion ‘services’
SB23-188, titled “Protections For Accessing Reproductive Health Care,” requires insurance companies to establish contracts with medical professionals who commit abortions and provide mutilating medical interventions for gender confusion (which the legislation describes as “legally protected health-care activity”) across the state.
Insurers who do not support these courses of action are barred from “refusing to issue, canceling, or terminating, refusing to renew, or imposing any sanctions, fines, penalties, or rate increases for a medical malpractice policy” as well as “taking an adverse action against a health-care provider, including refusing to pay for a provided health-care service, terminating or refusing to renew a contract with the health-care provider, or imposing other penalties on the health-care provider.”
Professionals in the health insurance field are also not permitted to “refus[e] to credential a physician as a network provider or terminating a physician’s status as a network provider.” The law does include an exception if “the person or entity is a religious organization and legally protected health-care activities conflict with the religious organization’s bona fide religious beliefs and practices.”
Medical professionals who commit abortions and so-called “sex change” procedures are protected from “a civil or criminal judgment or a professional disciplinary action” for carrying out such so-called “services.” Legal professionals are forbidden from launching similar legal actions against this group for practicing “legally protected health-care activity,” including “issuing a subpoena.” Other states’ laws surrounding these issues are also not allowed to be brought up in a Colorado state court unless another state law permits it.
Abortion and medical interventions for gender confusion are altogether viewed as legal and may not be the basis for any medical malpractice lawsuit or arrest. Government employees are also barred from providing information requested for out-of-state investigations related to obtaining an abortion. A public entity may not infringe upon the “rights” of medical professionals to murder unborn children through licensing restrictions or denials.
Required coverage of HIV drugs and undermining parental rights
SB23-189, which is dedicated to “increasing access to reproductive health care,” involves numerous policies surrounding HIV drugs. The legislation updates the “mandatory preventive health-care services coverage for health benefit plans” to include “HIV prevention drugs and the services necessary for initiation and continued use of an HIV prevention drug, as described in the bill, consistent with federal guidelines.”
Individuals whose health insurance legally covers HIV drugs may not be asked “to undergo step therapy or to receive prior authorization” to receive the drugs before July 2027, if the insurance covered the medication by March 2023.
The law also states that “with the minor’s consent, section 6 allows a health-care provider acting within the scope of the health-care provider’s license, certificate, or registration to furnish contraceptive procedures, supplies, or information to the minor without notification to or the consent of the minor’s parent or parents, legal guardian, or any other person having custody of or decision-making responsibility for the minor.”
$200,000 will be given to the state’s public and health environment department to develop a “family planning access collaborative,” to include recommendations of how to increase access to HIV drugs.
Additionally, beginning on January 1, 2025, “large employer plans” must “provide coverage for the total cost of abortion care [sic] without policy deductibles, copayments, or coinsurance,” with an exception for employer’s whose religious beliefs would be violated by providing the coverage.
Attack on pro-life pregnancy centers
SB23-190 was passed to address the so-called “deceptive trade practice [of] pregnancy related service[s],” also known as crisis pregnancy centers which do not commit abortions. This law requires pro-life pregnancy resource centers to utilize disclosures in which they clearly state that their organization is anti-abortion, thus limiting the so-called “deceptive” advertising that the centers provide genuine women’s healthcare through life-affirming alternatives to abortion.
“A health-care provider engages in unprofessional conduct or is subject to discipline in this state if the health-care provider provides, prescribes, administers, or attempts medication abortion reversal in this state, unless the Colorado medical board, the state board of pharmacy, and the state board of nursing, in consultation with each other, each have in effect rules finding that it is a generally accepted standard of practice to engage in medication abortion reversal,” the law states. The “applicable rules” designated by the respective authorities must be determined and implemented by October 1, 2023.
Contrary to the insinuation that abortion pill reversals fall below the standard of practice, the procedure has been proven to be an effective way of saving both mothers and babies from abortion. Data shows that 4,000 babies in the United States have been saved through abortion pill reversals in the past decade.
While Colorado implements legislation which continues to advocate for the murder of the unborn and criticizes those seeking to spare families from the tragedy of abortion, conservative states are enacting competing policies. States such as Tennessee and Mississippi have completely banned medical intervention for gender confused minors, including puberty blockers, cross sex hormones, and surgeries.
Texas enacted the country’s first “heartbeat bill” in 2021, banning elective abortion once a baby’s heartbeat is detected. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently signed a similar law to protect some of the unborn in his state. Additionally, Tennessee and West Virginia have endorsed the work of pro-life pregnancy centers by granting state funding to support these organizations.
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