Re: May 26 guest commentary.
It’s not easy to pass good laws when Republicans and Democrats split control of the state legislature. We saw that play out this year, with Republicans in charge of the Senate and Democrats in charge of the House.
As a former president of the Senate, it’s pretty easy to tell when lawmakers are trying to make a political point or pass a good law. Good policy or good law is made when either you work with a broad coalition of people to promote a good proposal and/or you reach across the aisle for broad bipartisan support.
Republicans in the legislature this session made six proposals to restrict women’s reproductive rights. None of their proposals stood a chance of being passed.
Colorado is No. 1 in the country preventing teen pregnancy and abortion, largely because of a program to provide long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) such as IUDs. A modest $5 million investment would mean higher graduation rates and fewer teen mothers on public assistance, saving the state about $50 million. The LARC program gained bipartisan support in the House and among national public health professionals because of its success.
A broad coalition of children’s advocates, non-profits and medical professionals worked for months to talk with lawmakers to find common ground and allow the program to continue.
But Senate Republicans voted twice to kill the bill, once in a hearing and again in an attempt to amend the budget. As Rep. Don Coram, R-Montrose, said, it was hypocrisy because LARC lowers abortion rates and saves money.
Contrast this with the political theater approach of other proposals this year. None of these bills from Senate Republicans garnered bipartisan support:
Six bills attacking abortion access, including requirements for doctors to provide biased counseling and mandatory ultrasounds to women before providing an abortion, as well as creation of unnecessarily regulations targeting only abortion providers.
• A bill to create sweeping parental control over children’s medical and mental health, even in cases of incest and abuse
• Two bills to create “Right to discriminate” laws that would allow denial of important reproductive health care services and to discriminate against LGBT Coloradans.
• And a bill borrowing heavily from an anti-abortion group’s language, attempting to give fertilized eggs legal rights and make pregnant women vulnerable to criminal charges. There was no attempt to form a broad coalition or reach across party lines on this bill. Or to use Colorado’s current law that punishes those who attack pregnant women and cause them to lose their pregnancy and baby . It was a blatant attempt to make political points from a vicious attack on a pregnant woman in Longmont.
There are plenty of opportunities for good policy and for lawmakers to find common ground for Colorado women and families. Until Sen. Ellen Roberts and other Senate Republicans get serious about doing the hard work to pass good laws — instead of making political points — their constituents should not take them seriously, either.
Joan Fitz-Gerald is a former president of the Colorado Senate.
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