Beginning on January 1, 2026, Colorado employee health insurance plans will cover abortion care and require the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing to authorize reimbursements for abortion care under publicly funded insurance, including community members with coverage through Health First Colorado, and the Reproductive Health Care Program, following the passage of Amendment 79 in November.
Legislation to implement the voter-approved protections for abortion care and pregnancy-related services is currently moving through the Colorado Senate, passing the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday with a 5-2 vote. Sen. Lisa Frizell (R-Castle Rock) and Sen. John Carson (R-Highlands Ranch) opposed the bill, which will now head to the Appropriations Committee.
“Coloradans deserve the freedom to make their own health care decisions and choices about when to start a family — full stop,” said Sen. Lindsey Daugherty (D-Arvada) in a news release. “Amidst a dangerous national landscape, we have worked hard to ensure that Colorado is a beacon for access to safe and affordable reproductive health care. Last November, Coloradans resoundingly voted to build on that work and permanently protect the fundamental right to abortion care in our state’s constitution.”
In addition to the passage of Amendment 79, this year Colorado legislators are moving to strengthen Colorado’s shield law, which protects abortion patients and providers from prosecution by states where abortion is illegal. In December, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Dr. Margaret Daley Carpenter of New York for providing medication abortion to Texas residents in violation of state law. In February, a Louisiana grand jury indicted Carpenter on similar charges. These cases could challenge the shield laws in place in states where abortion is legal.
Senate Bill 25-129, Legally Protected Health-Care Activity Protections, passed the Senate last month and now heads to the House Judiciary Committee. “Colorado is a beacon for reproductive freedom and access to abortion in our region,” said Sen. Faith Winter (D-Broomfield) in a news release. “Strengthening our shield law would expand protections for patients, providers, and helpers against interstate criminal and civil threats. These measures, like prescription label privacy, telehealth protections, and robust legal safeguards, will ensure that Colorado remains a national leader for reproductive health care and freedom.”
Despite state protections for abortion access and reproductive health care, advocates are concerned about federal efforts to restrict abortion. Last month, the United States Supreme Court declined to take up two cases challenging Colorado’s ‘buffer zone’ law protecting clinics, health care providers, and patients from harassment, threats, and intimidation.
Colorado’s law prohibits protesters from approaching patients within a ‘bubble’ of eight feet of a 100-foot perimeter around the health care facility. Colorado’s law was originally passed in 1993 by then State Representative Diana DeGette and has withstood two Supreme Court challenges.
“This is good news and further testament that access to reproductive health care is a longstanding, fundamental Colorado value,” said Cobalt President Karen Middleton in a news release. “Patients deserve dignity and medical providers deserve safety when it comes to getting the health care they need, in Colorado or anywhere else. But this is tempered by concern that the Trump Administration saying it will limit enforcement of federal law protecting reproductive health care clinics. We’re glad Colorado’s buffer zone law still stands. Colorado remains a beacon of hope to the rest of the country on abortion rights and we intend to keep it that way. But with chaos at the federal level, we need to further reinforce the will of the voters by implementing Amendment 79, which puts abortion rights in the Colorado Constitution, strengthen our state’s shield law, and guarantee patients access to abortion care in Colorado’s emergency rooms.”
Shortly after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, Trump pardoned 23 anti-abortion activists who were sentenced for violating the FACE [Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances] Act. Enacted in 1994, the FACE Act prohibits intentional property damage and the use of “force or threat of force or…physical obstruction” to “injure, intimidate or interfere with” someone entering a health care facility.
In 2022, 11 of those pardoned were charged with violating the FACE act for blockading the Carafem Health Center Clinic, in Mount Juliet, Tennessee on March 5, 2021. According to a Justice Department news release, “all 11 defendants violated the FACE Act by using physical obstruction to intimidate and interfere with the clinic’s employees and a patient, because the clinic was providing, and the patient sought reproductive health services. All defendants will have appearances scheduled in U.S. District Court in Nashville at a later date. If convicted of the offenses, the seven conspiracy defendants each face up to a maximum of 11 years in prison, three years of supervised release and fines of up to $350,000. The remaining five defendants face a year in prison, one year of supervised release and a fine of up to $10,000.”
While the majority of FACE Act prosecutions involve anti-abortion protesters, the law has also been used to target activists who have vandalized anti-abortion pregnancy centers following the Dobbs decision. In January, two Florida residents were indicted by a federal grand jury for spray-painting threats on anti-abortion pregnancy centers in the state. According to the indictment, “Caleb Freestone, 27, and Amber Smith-Stewart, 23, engaged in a conspiracy to prevent employees of reproductive health services facilities from providing those services. … As part of the conspiracy, the defendants targeted pregnancy resource facilities and vandalized those facilities with spray-painted threats. … Freestone and Smith-Stewart, and other co-conspirators, are alleged to have spray painted threats, including ‘If abortions aren’t safe than niether [sic] are you,’ ‘YOUR TIME IS UP!!,’ ‘WE’RE COMING for U,’ and ‘We are everywhere,’ on a reproductive health services facility in Winter Haven, Florida.”
In 2023, former U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn joined Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) in introducing legislation to repeal the law. Since taking office, Trump’s Justice Department has issued directives to limit enforcement of the FACE Act to “extraordinary circumstances” or instances when death, extreme bodily harm, or significant property damage result.
