Abortion is more than policy

I was born after 1973, so I spent my whole life believing I lived in a country that saw me for the complex person I am, and respected the decisions I needed to make about my body. So when the court overturned Roe v Wade a year ago today, it was not only heartbreaking; it was earth shattering.

I gave birth to my perfect daughter, Lennon, in 2021 and one year later, I found out I was pregnant with her little sibling right before learning I had a ruptured ectopic pregnancy. In addition to being the most painful thing I’ve ever experienced, it also required the doctors to remove the fetus and one of my fallopian tubes.

In some parts of America in 2023, I could’ve been denied care that saved my life. And there are over 25,000,000 women in states with total abortion bans who may have to make one of the toughest decisions we ever have to make while also being afraid of incarceration for a deeply personal and private choice.

I’m grateful to live in Colorado and to have been leading a progressive policy organization that fought hard in a coalition of other incredible organizations and with the leadership of Reps. Froelich and Esgar and Sen. Gonzales to pass the Reproductive Health Equity Act. In this bill, we asserted that abortion is a fundamental right and protected a woman’s right to be the sole decision maker about her body.

I will be working hard with that same coalition to ensure a woman’s right to an abortion is codified in our State Constitution and will continue to pass policies protecting abortion providers and protecting women who travel to our sanctuary state to receive abortions.

For me, and for many of us, this issue is more than just personal. I want to leave my daughter and my grandchildren a world with more equity, more dignity and more human rights than the one I was born into. And I won’t stop fighting until I do.