Anti-abortion advocates at a Friday March for Life rally told a gathering of hundreds at the state Capitol building that Colorado was “struggling in terms of building a culture of life right now.”
State Rep. Brandi Bradley, a Douglas County Republican, described Colorado as a state “focused on death” with some of the most “radical and extreme abortion laws in the country.”
At a time when surrounding states like Arizona have enacted abortion bans or restrictions, Colorado has earned a reputation as a haven for people seeking abortion and reproductive health care.
Months before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade — the 1973 ruling that secured the right to have an abortion in the U.S. Constitution — Colorado enshrined the right to an abortion in state law.
In 2023, Democratic legislators passed additional laws offering protections to doctors who perform abortions for people coming from states with abortion bans, among other reproductive health issues.
Colorado voters have consistently rejected abortion restrictions over the years.
“We are a pro-murder state,” Bradley said. “This state is not pro-choice. It’s pro-abortion only.”
Bradley and other anti-abortion speakers at the rally warned of a proposed state constitutional amendment brewing that would further secure abortion rights in the state.
Proposed Initiative 89 would codify the right to abortion access in the Colorado Constitution and repeal a ban on public funds going toward abortions, meaning state employees or students on university health plans could use their insurance to pay for an abortion.
Coloradans for Protecting Reproductive Freedom, a coalition of abortion rights advocates, announced Friday that they had surpassed the number of signatures needed to get the initiative on the 2024 November ballot where voters can decide its fate.
The hundreds of attendees who turned out for Colorado’s first March for Life rally were largely faith-based contingencies of women, men and children of all ages. Churches across the state bused congregation members to downtown Denver. Attendees represented their churches, religious schools and anti-abortion counseling centers with banners, shirts and signs.
Speakers, who ranged from politicians to clergy to anti-abortion activists, gave thanks to the military, veterans and first responders in the crowd.
Bradley noted multiple times that more anti-abortion politicians were inside the Capitol fighting for Second Amendment rights as the crowd cheered.
Speakers before the march shared prayer and personal testimonies to encourage attendees to speak up in support of pregnant mothers and the unborn, assuring the crowd that even one voice and one person can cause change.
Krystal Clark, 43, came to the rally from Colorado Springs, where she helps lead a group called Embrace Grace at Radiant Church. The group, she said, supports pregnant mothers.
After having an unplanned pregnancy at 16, Clark said she chose to have an abortion at 19 because of the difficulties of teen pregnancy.
“They don’t tell you about the post-abortion traumatic stress you experience,” Clark said. “The hardest and most difficult moment in our lives is when we are partners in the death of our babies.”
Clark said she had a vision of her son in heaven that gave her strength to begin helping and supporting pregnant mothers.
Clark felt energized by anti-abortion advocacy in surrounding states and said she thinks more anti-abortion advocacy will take hold in Colorado.
“I think the church is going to rise up,” Clark said. “We’re going to cut off the bloodline of the enemy. Every believer should be voting.”
Michaela Woods, a 20-year-old Regis University student, said she came to the rally to protect the unborn.
Woods appreciated the speakers who talked about mercy and supporting pregnant mothers with love and compassion.
The Catholic woman said anti-abortion activists need to speak up about their beliefs more. Woods said she speaks her mind in class and on the campus of her private, Jesuit Catholic institution.
“It’s the idea of not shaming but wanting to help,” Woods said.
During the rally, speakers had attendees hold up their phones and text a number that would connect them with updates from March for Life to keep them better informed about the anti-abortion movement in the state.
Karen Middleton, president of Colorado reproductive rights group Cobalt who was not at the rally, said the anti-abortion movement is struggling in the state because it wants to tell people what they should or should not do with their bodies.
“Abortion is healthcare,” Middleton said. “If you choose to access one, you should be able to. You get to decide whether or not that’s right for you and nobody is telling you that you must make one choice or another. The flip side is we have the anti-abortion movement who wants to tell you you cannot access abortion. The majority of Coloradans do not believe the government should interfere with decisions about whether or not to have a child or access an abortion.”