Legal Age for Abortion in Colorado

A group of prominent female legislators announced the proposal in December 2021, in response to the Supreme Court, which heard arguments about a Mississippi bill banning abortions after 15 weeks. The judges` questions indicated that they were prepared to uphold Mississippi`s law, thereby weakening Roe v. Wade. In 2017, about 80 percent of Colorado counties did not have clinics offering abortions, and 27 percent of Colorado women lived in those counties. [1] What if the patient is 17 years old when she makes the abortion appointment, but is 18 years old on the day of the abortion appointment? Parental consent means that a parent or guardian must approve an abortion before it takes place on the minor in their care. Informing parents does not give parents a say in their child`s decision to have an abortion. A parental notification requirement means that the doctor must send written notification to the minor`s legal guardians before performing the abortion. Between 1972 and 1974, no deaths from illegal abortion were recorded in the state. [49] In the winter of 1978, three women had to be hospitalized in Denver less than a month after consuming royal penny oil to induce an abortion. One of these women died.

[13] Several hundred anti-abortion activists participate in the Rocky Mountain March for Life in Colorado each year to support abortion. [51] • In 2017, there were 1,587 facilities offering abortions in the United States, down 5% from 1,671 facilities in 2014. Sixteen percent of facilities in 2017 were abortion clinics (i.e. clinics where more than half of all patient visits were for abortion), 35% were non-specialized clinics, 33% were hospitals, and 16% were private doctors` offices. Sixty percent of all abortions were performed in abortion clinics, 35 percent in non-specialized clinics, 3 percent in hospitals, and 1 percent in doctors` offices. [1] In Colorado, you do not need parental permission to have an abortion. However, state law requires your doctor to notify your parents or guardians 48 hours before your abortion appointment, based on Colorado`s Parental Notification Act of 2003. Since 2010, however, the abortion landscape in the United States has become increasingly restrictive as more states pass anti-abortion laws. Between January 1, 2011 and July 1, 2019, states passed 483 new abortion restrictions, accounting for nearly 40 percent of all abortion restrictions passed by states in the decades following Roe v. Wade. Some of the most common restrictions on abortion at the state level include notification or consent requirements for minors, restrictions on public funding, mandatory counseling designed to discourage individuals from having abortions, prescribed waiting periods before an abortion, and unnecessary and burdensome regulations for abortion facilities.

This would likely lead residents seeking abortions to travel to Colorado if they can afford it. Providers here are preparing for Texas residents to visit clinics for care after the state strictly banned abortion for six weeks last fall. Today, abortion laws are constantly changing. If they apply to you, it`s important to stay up to date on the laws in your area and how they affect you. You also need to understand a big difference in abortion notification laws – parental consent vs parental notification. During the 2022 legislature, Colorado Republicans proposed several bills aimed at restricting or even criminalizing abortion in the state. The bills were ultimately blocked by Democrats, who have a majority in the state legislature. [2] 2. Fuentes L and Jerman J, Distance travelled to obtain clinical abortion care in the United States and reasons for choosing clinic, Journal of Women`s Health, 2019, doi.org/10.1089/jwh.2018.7496.

How does parental notification work? If the minor patient is under 18 years of age and wishes to make an appointment for an abortion, the written notification must be sent to the address of the minor`s parents 48 hours before the scheduled abortion procedure. The minor patient may have the abortion performed 48 hours after written notification. The clock for 48 hours begins to tick at noon after the written notification. The Colorado Parental Notification Law, also cited and known as the Colorado Parental Notification Act, was passed by the Colorado legislature in 2003. The law requires doctors or health care providers to inform a parent or guardian of a minor`s planned abortion. There are exceptions to the notification rule, such as the formal emancipation of a minor or the minor has been subject to judicial circumvention of the obligation of parental notification. This law applies to anyone under the age of 18 who wishes to have an abortion, except in certain circumstances. If you are 17 years old and planning an abortion but you are 18 years old at the time of the appointment, the law does not apply. Certain extenuating circumstances allow minors to circumvent this law, such as: Every year, a wide range of people in the United States have abortions. In 2017, 862,320 abortions were performed in clinical settings in the United States. • In 2017, there were 32 facilities in Colorado that performed abortions, and 18 of those were clinics. These figures represent a 14% decrease in clinics compared to 2014, when there were a total of 36 abortion centers, including 21 clinics.

[1] Prior to the Reproductive Health Equity Act, Colorado`s law said little about abortion. A minor must notify at least one parent when receiving the procedure. And public health insurance can`t pay for an abortion unless a patient`s life is in danger. Otherwise, there are no waiting times or restrictions. Colorado has long been one of the few states to allow the procedure at any time during pregnancy. The law prohibits any person from intentionally or recklessly performing or attempting an abortion on a person if the gestational age of the fetus is 22 weeks or more, except in certain circumstances. Any person who performs or attempts to perform an abortion in violation of this article is guilty of a Class 1 offence, but may only be punished by a fine and not imprisonment. Parental consent laws for abortions can be confusing, especially since they vary from state to state.

Colorado is one of the safest states for people who have abortions, which is why we established Mile High Women`s Clinic in Denver. We follow Colorado government guidelines when minors are involved. The passage of the law in April means abortion rights are officially enshrined in state law and would have to be repealed by the state legislature, though this is unlikely because Colorado voters have repeatedly voted to defend abortion rights. Abortion will remain legal in Colorado. In 2022, Colorado enacted legal protection for abortion as a fundamental right. Colorado`s Amendment 48 was an initiative in 2008 to change the definition of a person to “any human being from the moment of fertilization.” On 4 November 2008, the initiative was rejected by 73.2% of voters. [31] Colorado`s Proposition 115 was a 2020 election initiative that prevented abortions at 22 weeks unless the pregnancy endangered the mother`s life. Performing an abortion after 22 weeks would have become a Class 1 offence. On November 3, 2020, Colorado voters rejected the proposal 115, with 59% of voters opposing the initiative. [32] On November 3, 2020, voters rejected a voting initiative that would have banned abortion after 22 weeks of PMT. [6] Stop Late Abortions in Colorado, CO SEC`Y OF STATE A woman who has an abortion is not subject to criminal penalties.