Six years before Roe v. Wade, Colorado became the first state to legalize abortions widely up to 16 weeks of pregnancy.
The 50th anniversary of the deadly legislation is Tuesday, and abortion activists in the state are celebrating, according to the Associated Press.
Like most states at the time, Colorado protected unborn babies from abortions, except in cases of rape or incest, or when the mother’s life was at risk. Republican state Rep. Richard Lamm’s legislation changed that on April 25, 1967.
Described as “landmark” legislation at the time, the Colorado abortion law did not go as far as the U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade did. It prohibited abortions after 16 weeks of pregnancy, and required a three-person board of doctors to unanimously approve the abortion. Abortions only were allowed to be performed in accredited hospitals, the report states.
“The bill passed a Republican-controlled Legislature with bipartisan support and was signed into law by Republican Gov. John Love despite strong objections from many constituents,” according to the AP.
At the time, the news wire reported Love’s office was flooded with about 5,000 letters and telegrams, the majority urging him to oppose the life-destroying bill.
“I am certain that the operation provided for will occur only in hospitals, subject to a severe test of accreditation, which will successfully prevent anything approaching abortion clinics,” Love told the AP in 1967.
“The fear that some have that Colorado will become an ‘abortion Mecca’ if this bill becomes law does not seem to me well founded,” Love continued.
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Now, abortions are legal through all nine months of pregnancy in Colorado, and women do travel there to abort viable, late-term unborn babies at one of the last late-term abortion facilities in the country.
Its practitioner, late-term abortionist Warren Hern, is facing a lawsuit for allegedly leaving part of a woman’s baby inside her, which caused extensive pain and infertility. Hern also appears to lie to women about their unborn babies, LifeNews reported.
Colorado also is one of the few states that does not protect unborn babies from non-abortion forms of violence. Several years ago, the state witnessed a horrific crime when a woman cut a late-term unborn baby girl out of her mother’s womb. The woman was found guilty of attempted murder of the mother, but she was not charged in the baby’s death
Though the unborn baby was 7-months along and likely would have survived outside of the womb with proper medical attention, prosecutors were not able to bring charges for her death. Colorado state law does not recognize unborn children as human beings in any circumstances.
In May 2015, Colorado Democrats killed a bill that would have added the state to the list of more than 25 states that provide justice and protections for pregnant women and unborn children in situations of violence that don’t involve abortions. They rejected a similar measure in 2013.
The November elections saw the state expanding its life-destroying laws even further. Voters approved a ballot measure legalizing assisted suicide. Assisted suicide also is legal in California, Oregon, Washington and Vermont.
