Colorado Abortion Advocates Won’t Put Morning After Pill on State Ballot 
Email this article
Printer friendly page
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 4, 2006
Denver, CO (LifeNews.com) — Abortion advocates are dropping an effort to put a measure to allow over the counter sales of the morning after pill on the November ballot. Instead, they say they plan to focus on defeating a proposal to ban late-term abortions and electing Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Ritter, who is expected to sign a bill on the drugs if elected.
The Colorado legislature approved a measure promoting the sales of the Plan B drugs, which can sometimes cause an abortion, but Gov. Bill Owens vetoed the measure.
Pro-abortion groups had considered taking the measure to voters, but Steve Welchert, a Democratic campaign consultant, told the Denver Post that won’t happen. They withdrew the initiative proposal on Wednesday.
"Given limited resources, it’s more important to work to elect Bill Ritter as governor so that next year the Boyd bill becomes law," he said.
Sen. Betty Boyd, a Democrat from Lakewood, told the Post she’s glad abortion advocates didn’t move forward with the idea.
"I’m glad they did it," Boyd said. "I didn’t know where we would get the resources to fight for it. There will be anti-choice legislation on the ballot that we need to fight, and I do not know where the ground troops would come from."
Boyd is referring to a campaign pro-life advocates are supporting to pass a ballot initiative that would prohibit late-term abortions for unborn children who are past viability.
Owens vetoed the morning after pill bill last month and said part of his concern is that teenagers would make the drug their main method of birth control. It does not protect against sexually transmitted diseases.
Ritter, on the other hand, though he claims to oppose abortion, backs the morning after pill. He will face either pro-life Rep. Bob Beauprez or pro-life University of Denver president Marc Holtzman in November.
According to the Post, Welchert upset some abortion advocates by filing the paperwork for the initiative before Ownes vetoed the bill.
