Amid a sudden mid-April snowstorm Friday, anti-abortion activists from around Colorado gathered in Denver for the third annual Colorado March for Life.
“Today we stand together in the heart of Colorado for something simple, something timeless, something worth defending in every generation — the dignity and value of human life,” said Rep. Brandi Bradley (R-Littleton), who was joined on the steps by Rep. Stephanie Luck (R-Penrose). “I am honored to stand before you not just as a voice, but as one of many who believe that every life — no matter how small, no matter how vulnerable — is worthy of protection, compassion, and love. This movement is not about politics; it’s about people. It is about the child whose heartbeat begins long before the world ever hears their name. It is the mother who deserves real support, real resources, real hope, not pressure, not fear, and not abandonment. It is about a society that must decide whether we will protect the most defenseless among us or turn away. In Colorado, we pride ourselves on compassion. We say we care about justice, equality, and human rights, but those principles must extend to every human life, born and unborn. Because if they do not, then they are not principles at all, they are preferences. We are here today because we refuse to accept a culture that treats life as disposable.”
Abortion has proven to be wildly electorally popular in Colorado, with attempts at anti-abortion ballot measures no longer even gathering enough signatures to make it onto the ballot. In 2008, Colorado saw the nation’s first attempt at a “fetal personhood” ballot initiative with Amendment 48. Kristi Burton Brown, former Colorado Republican Party Chair and current Colorado Board of Education member, was the sponsor behind that measure, and has built her political career on her anti-abortion stance. Amendment 48, and a 2010 attempt, Amendment 62, were both rejected by voters with over 70% of voters opposed, and did not receive a majority vote in any county in Colorado. Amendment 67, in 2014, was rejected by nearly 65% of voters, and 2020’s Proposition 115, which would have banned abortions after 22 weeks of pregnancy, was defeated with 59% of the vote, after opponents spent $9.5 million to campaign against the measure. In 2022, an attempt to classify abortion as “murder” failed to gather enough signatures to even make it on the ballot.
Colorado’s broad protections for abortion, enshrined in law under the Colorado Reproductive Health Equity Act in 2022 and then adopted by voters as a constitutional amendment in 2024, allow patients to access abortion throughout the entire nine months of pregnancy. In addition to legal protections for abortion, Colorado has enacted shield laws to protect out-of-state patients from prosecution by states with anti-abortion laws on the books. This year, Colorado legislators are looking to expand access to medication abortion on college campuses through House Bill 1335, which passed in the House Education Committee last week.
“Colorado has taken bold steps to ensure abortion remains safe, legal and protected in our state,” said Rep. Kenny Nguyen (D-Broomfield) in a news release. “Despite major pushback from the Trump Administration to dismantle all abortion health care, Colorado remains a beacon for reproductive freedom. Reproductive health care is health care, and this bill meets college students where they are to improve access to abortion medication. No one should have to jump through hoops to receive essential reproductive health care, and this bill streamlines access on college campuses.”
Hannah Callahan, the national March for Life senior state march program lead, spoke out against the measure during last week’s march. “Here in Colorado, the state legislature recently introduced HB 1335, a pretty concerning bill that would force Colorado colleges and universities to stockpile and provide chemical abortion drugs through their university health centers, their pharmacies, giving young women a new pathway to easily access these incredibly harmful drugs,” she said. “Requiring campus health centers to become abortion drug dispensaries is reckless, and it is dangerous. It is unnecessary. Those pills not only end the life of an innocent baby in the womb, they also harm the women who take them. Chemical abortion drugs are misleadingly marketed as safer than Tylenol, but they are anything but safe, and Colorado’s young women should not be handed abortion drugs by their college’s health center staff to take alone in their dorm room with serious and lifelong psychological, spiritual, emotional, and physical harms at stake. Women do not need abortion to complete their education, they need support.”
Since the 2022 Dobbs decision, anti-abortion activists have focused on restricting access to medication abortion, which is widely available via telehealth and deliverable through the mail. Last year, a report from the religious right think tank Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) about the dangers of medication abortion became a fixture in anti-abortion talking points. FDA data indicate a very low risk of serious complications from mifepristone, one of the drugs involved in medication abortion, with a safety profile comparable to or safer than common drugs like penicillin. Serious adverse events occur in less than 1% of patients.
Anti-abortion pregnancy centers have become a key element in the conservative opposition to medication abortion, offering abortion pill reversal services to women who have taken mifepristone and regret the decision.
“In Colorado, when a woman finds out she’s pregnant, and she’s scared, when she’s searching for answers late at night, when feels alone and unsure of what to do, it’s often pregnancy centers that meet her first,” said Jaime Gallob of the Pregnancy Center of Grand Junction. “Not a debate, not a headline, a person, a place where she can walk into and be seen. Pregnancy centers are not an add-on to the pro-life movement. They are the heartbeat of the movement. They are the lifeblood of the movement.”
In 2023 Colorado passed legislation to ban abortion pill reversal and have medical boards consider it unprofessional conduct. The bill was immediately challenged by conservative legal groups the Beckett Fund and Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). Chelsea Mynyk, who was a plaintiff represented by ADF, argued in favor of abortion pill reversal. Last year, U.S. District Judge Daniel D. Domenico, a Trump appointee, ruled in favor of plaintiffs, finding the state lacked a compelling argument in regulating the practice, and awarded $6.1 million in legal fees between the two law firms.
“With abortion-pull reversal, as the mom comes to us with a 24 or 72 hours of taking Mifepristone, we can give her progesterone to counteract the effects of that Mifepristone, and 64% to 68% of the time, the mom’s pregnancy will continue, which is amazing,” said Mynyk. “When I opened my clinic in 2020, there were about 800 babies saved from the abortion pill reversal. Now today there are over 8,000 babies saved. God continues to show up in beautiful ways with beautiful stories like Mackenna [Greene, her patient] and Selah and others. I’ve had seven more babies saved since Mackenna. Recently, I had a young mom tell me that her boyfriend was pressuring her to take the abortion drugs, saying that he would leave her if she did not take these, and if she really loved him, she would take it and end the life of her unborn baby. She took that first pill under the dress and pressure from her boyfriend. Immediately, she felt regret and reached out to the hotline. I got in touch with her and I have been supporting her. Her baby is still continuing to grow, praise the Lord.”
The March for Life, both nationally and in Colorado, receives broad support from Christian activists, particularly Catholics. Newly-appointed Denver Archbishop James Golka, who was elevated to bishop by Pope Frances and elevated to archbishop by Pope Leo XIV, led the marchers in an opening prayer. Sister Mary Grace, from the Sisters of Life, a Catholic religious community of women consecrated for the protection of human life, also spoke to the crowd.
“Every day is a big day for life,” said Sister Mary Grace. “Because every life is a gift. Whether we are planned or unplanned, whether we come in ideal or completely inconvenient circumstances, every single life to the exclusion of no one was first wanted by God. It’s the ‘why’ — literally — it’s the ‘why’ behind every breath that you take and every beat of your heart. Every life is literally saturated with the sacred.”
