Colorado abortion provider and outspoken abortion advocate Dr. Rebecca Cohen has filed a lawsuit against Gov. Jared Polis, the Colorado Medical Board, and the state of Colorado over parental notification requirements for minors seeking abortions. The lawsuit argues that the parental notification requirement discriminates against young people’s right to an abortion under Amendment 79, and violates their rights under Colorado’s Equal Rights Amendment.
“Colorado’s Parental Notice Requirement intrudes on young people’s privacy, and in some cases risks their health and safety,” said Cohen in a news release. “The law undermines the sacred doctor-patient relationship and can push young people further away from safe, timely medical care. I am proud to support young people in this legal challenge.”
Colorado’s Parental Notice requirement prohibits abortion providers from performing an abortion on a minor until at least 48 hours after one of her parents has been notified of the abortion. According to the lawsuit, “Young people who do not satisfy the requirement cannot obtain an abortion in Colorado unless they secure a judicial ruling concluding that parental notice is not in their ‘best interest’ or that they are ‘sufficiently mature to decide whether to have an abortion.’”
Archbishop Samuel Aquila of the Denver Diocese predicted Amendment 79’s impact on parental notification. “Another troubling aspect of this amendment is its ban on parental notification laws,” he wrote in a September 2024 open letter. “The pro-abortion lobby places words such as ‘shall not impede’ on a ‘right to abortion’ in their amendments intentionally — it means that all laws protecting parental rights are nullified. There is no age restriction on abortion in Colorado, and 79 would prevent parents from being informed if their 15-year-old daughter has an abortion. Parents must have the right to know if their adolescent daughter is being pressured into getting an abortion by their boyfriend or someone in authority such as their coach, teacher, school nurse or counselor.”
Cohen’s lawsuit argues that in addition to causing undue stress to the patient, the parental notification requirement “compromises the doctor-patient relationship of all young people seeking an abortion.”
Since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, Republican-led states have moved to ban or restrict abortion, leading to influx of out-of-state patients in Colorado. The additional burden of travel imposed on patients has led to delays in care and an increase in the number of abortions later in pregnancy. Cohen’s lawsuit argues that parental notification requirements increase delays in care.
“Because it is far more practicable for busy clinicians to notify a parent of an abortion by mail rather than in person, the Parental Notice Requirement delays some young people’s abortions by at least three days,” the lawsuit notes. “This delay compounds the delays caused by long travel distances, wait times for abortion appointments, and young people’s tendency to discover they are pregnant later than adults.”
Major medical organizations whose members provide adolescent or reproductive healthcare, including the American Medical Association, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Academy of Pediatrics, oppose forced parental involvement laws.
“Colorado has long sought to protect people seeking abortion care,” said Rupali Sharma, co-director of litigation at the Lawyering Project, representing Cohen, in a news release. “That includes people who are unable to obtain that care in their own states in the wake of devastating abortion bans across the country. This lawsuit is an opportunity for Colorado to honor its commitment by no longer excluding young people from its critical protections.”
