DENVER, CO, April 15, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new bill introduced by Democrats in the Colorado State Senate threatens to reverse all progress the pro-life movement has made in the last several decades, say opponents of the bill.
Last week, SB 175, or the “Reproductive Health Freedom Act,” was passed in committee and is set to be debated on Thursday in the Senate.
It would prohibit pro-life laws from being enacted and could set the stage for dismantling the laws already in place.
The bill states that it “prohibits a state or local policy that denies or interferes with an individual's reproductive health care decisions or a state or local policy regarding reproductive health care that is inconsistent with, or that denies or interferes with access to information based on, current evidence-based scientific data and medical consensus.”
According to Think Progress, the bill “strengthen[s] the precedent that was established under Roe vs. Wade.” They say it would effectively enshrine “women’s fundamental right to privacy and freedom about their health care choices” by prohibiting any state or local government from setting restrictions on abortion access unless supported by “scientific evidence.”
Think Progress calls the bill “ambitious” and says that it is “a proactive piece of legislation that would safeguard women’s reproductive health decisions, and ensure that anti-choice politicians aren’t allowed to chip away at them.”
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In recent years, much progress has been made by pro-life legislators and organizations to restrict abortion access. According to the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, states passed a record 205 bills restricting abortion from 2011 to 2013.
The Archdiocese of Denver is actively campaigning against the bill, saying in a statement that it would effectively eliminate “any current regulation or policy” that would infringe on a woman’s right to privacy and reproductive health.
The archdiocese says the bill would eliminate “parental notification laws, parental involvement laws, laws promoting maternal health, government programs that promote childbirth, conscience protections laws, regulation of abortion doctors, laws regulating school health clinics, laws concerning abstinence education, laws affecting pregnancy centers and so on.”
In a letter posted last week, Archbishop Samuel Aquila of Denver asked all pro-lifers to pray for a stop to this law. “This over-reaching piece of legislation would essentially shut down any attempt to pass life-affirming legislation in Colorado ever again,” the archbishop wrote.
“It prevents common-sense regulations like waiting periods, restrictions on abortion pills (particularly for minors), and parental notification policies,” Aquila continues. “Advocates of this bill seek the absolute ‘right to abortion’ for girls as young as 10 or 11 without a parent’s knowledge, guidance or advice. Parents are seen as unfit in the moral guidance of their children.”
Aquila cited Pope Francis’ remarks from April 11 where the pontiff “affirmed… support for parents to decide their children’s moral and religious education, while he rejected ‘any kind of educational experimentation with children.’”
Additionally, this bill prohibits any law regulating abortion providers or facilities, which would essentially allow a free pass to abortionists like Kermit Gosnell. Gosnell is now serving a life sentence after being found guilty last year of three counts of murdering babies and a woman in his abortion clinic.
Colorado has long been in the fore-front of the abortion expansion movement. It was the first state to liberalize abortion, by decriminalizing abortion in the cases of rape, incest, and where the pregnancy would result in a permanent disability for the mother, six years before the historic Roe vs. Wade decision.