Colorado will cover abortion for Medicaid patients, state employees as Gov. Polis signs public funding law

Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton, The Denver Post on Apr 24, 2025

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DENVER — Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed two abortion-rights bills Thursday that will permit the use of public funding to cover the procedure and provide more protection for doctors and patients from out-of-state interference.

“Colorado is making sure that we are completely protecting the right to choose,” Polis said before signing the pieces of legislation into law. “At the federal level, we’re already seeing the government overreach threatening basic freedom when it comes to the most personal and private decisions.”

“That’s not the Colorado way,” he added.

One new law, passed by the legislature as Senate Bill 183, implements Amendment 79, passed by voters in November to establish a constitutional right to abortion in Colorado. It repealed an earlier provision in the state constitution that prohibited putting public funding toward abortion; now the new law requires abortion care coverage for Medicaid patients and Child Health Plan Plus program recipients using state money. Public employees’ insurance plans will also have to cover abortion care.

The ballot measure was approved by 62% of voters in the November election. With the governor’s signature, the legislation will take effect at the start of 2026.

State analysts estimated the cost of public coverage of abortion at nearly $5.9 million in the first full fiscal year, but they found it would actually reduce costs overall for the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, which oversees Medicaid. Since costs for abortion care would be slightly more than offset by the reduced expense to cover births, according to the fiscal analysis, the law is estimated to save around $286,000 in the 2025-26 fiscal year and about $573,000 in the next fiscal year.

The other law, passed as Senate Bill 129, will ramp up the state’s 2023 shield law to guard reproductive health care providers and patients — and their data — from out-of-state investigations and other actions.

Dozens of people — mostly women — packed into the governor’s office in the state Capitol to join Polis and Lt. Gov. Dianne Primavera. Primavera pointed out that her young granddaughter had joined for the occasion.

“I want her to have the same rights that I did growing up,” she said.

Another bill backed by abortion-rights advocates, Senate Bill 130, is still waiting to progress through the House. It would add emergency abortion protections to state law so access is guaranteed when a patient needs it. That is currently included in the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA, but some states have targeted the law’s mandated coverage of emergency abortions in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade.

“We have one more bill that’s protecting and expanding emergency care,” Karen Middleton, the president of the reproductive rights group Cobalt, told The Denver Post at the Capitol. “There are health care providers moving to Colorado because it is safe here, and we’re going to make sure that demand can be met.”

The Democratic sponsors of SB-183 — state Sens. Robert Rodriguez and Lindsey Daugherty, along with state Rep. Lorena García and House Speaker Julie McCluskie — were present Thursday to celebrate the bill signing.

“I am so proud of the work that’s gone on these past many years to lay the groundwork for a ballot measure that allowed the voice of the people — the people who have hired us — (to) finally be heard in a way that makes this a constitutional right in our state,” McCluskie said at the lectern.

Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains also cheered the move and the permitting of public funding to cover abortion, with public affairs manager Claudia Perez calling it “a historic victory for our patients.”

“This law will remove a long-standing, politically motivated financial barrier that has prevented too many people and families from getting the care they need,” Perez said.

Opponents of the legislation blasted the bill signing, arguing that the new law will cause fiscal and moral dilemmas.

“The allocation of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds to subsidize the deliberate ending of life and put women at risk is a tragedy for Colorado,” said Brittany Vessely, the executive director of the Colorado Catholic Conference and a board member of the Pro-Life Colorado coalition.

“Proponents of Amendment 79 deceived voters by claiming that it would have no financial impact,” said Dr. Catherine Wheeler of the American Association of Pro-Life OB/GYNS Colorado. “This is a sad day for Coloradans.”

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