The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments today in two cases challenging Texas Senate Bill 8 (SB8), which has banned nearly all abortion in Texas since it took effect September 1. At stake is whether Texans will continue to have to travel to nearby states like Colorado for care, whether other conservative states will be emboldened to pass laws that mimic SB8, and the fate of the federal constitutional right to an abortion promised in Roe v. Wade.
For abortion advocates in Colorado, confronting a situation in which the U.S. Supreme Court shuts down access to abortion in conservative states, requiring Colorado to take in huge waves of patients, has been a matter of when, not if.
As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hear a case that could do away with or weaken the constitutional right to an abortion, Colorado is situated among states with highly restrictive anti-abortion policies that could cut off access to the procedure for their residents if Roe falls.
“Would you vote to expand the [U.S. Supreme] Court?” KHOW radio host Ross Kaminsky asked U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) directly last month.
Republicans must not only retain the White House this fall, they must also hold the U.S. Senate, says Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO). If they don’t do both, he warns, even if President Trump is reelected, Chuck Schumer won’t approve any of Trump’s judges: “he’ll block every single one of them.”
At the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday morning, supporters of overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, which expanded abortion rights, defended a Louisiana law that, according to critics, effectively strips physicians from responsibly treating their patients and moves America one step closer to banning abortion outright.
A rally opposing Neil Gorsuch, President Donald Trump’s nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, is set for noon Thurs., Feb. 2, at the Byron White Federal Courthouse, 1823 Stout Street in Denver.
