In 1967, Colorado was the first state to legalize abortion for reasons other than rape or an immient threat to women’s health. But in the nearly 60 years since the bill passed, many Coloradans weren’t able to access the procedure due to a longstanding ban in the state constitution, which prohibited the use of public money to pay for abortions.
The ban, established in 1984, prevented Medicaid recipients and tens of thousands of public servants such as teachers, firefighters, and government employees from using their health insurance for abortion care.
But Coloradans can now use public health insurance to cover abortion care since voters approved Amendment 79 in 2024, which repealed the ban and enshrined the right to abortion into the state constitution.
Nearly half of Coloradans did not have abortion coverage in 2024, according to Jack Teter, the regional director of government affairs for Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains. Instead, patients had to pay for abortion care out of pocket.
In the past, Planned Parenthood could use its donor funds to cover the cost of the procedure for those patients. Nonprofits such as the Cobalt Abortion Fund and the Colorado Doula Project could also finance the procedure for low-income individuals, but philanthropy cannot cover the cost of public health entirely, said Adrienne Mansanares, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains.
“It can only go so far,” she said. “We really need the public health system to kick in.”
According to Mansanares, the lack of access to abortion care can have serious consequences for women’s health. She recalled a Medicaid patient who arrived at the Planned Parenthood Health Center in Glenwood Springs last summer to get an abortion was unable to use her coverage.
The patient ended up having an ectopic pregnancy, requiring a flight to Denver for an emergency abortion.
“If she was able to use her Medicaid, she would have had the abortion,” said Mansanares. “It wouldn't have been a problem.”
A long-term study following nearly 1,000 women for five years by the University of California San Francisco found that women who are unable to access an abortion end up with worse financial and physical health outcomes.
“Women are emotionally resilient, but abortion is associated with improved physical health, financial security, aspirational plans and the ability to take care of existing and future children,” said one of the study’s authors, Diana Greene Foster, during the 2022 American Medical Association annual meeting.
For Mansanares, the increased access helps solidify Colorado’s commitment to protecting reproductive rights—at a time when many surrounding states are moving in the opposite direction.
