Current:Home > MarketsColorado group says it has enough signatures for abortion rights ballot measure this fall -RiskRadar
Colorado group says it has enough signatures for abortion rights ballot measure this fall
View
Date:2025-04-13 21:26:35
A Colorado campaign that's trying to enshrine abortion rights into the state's constitution has gathered enough signatures to put the issue on the ballot this November, CBS News has learned.
To amend Colorado's constitution, petitioners must gather 124,238 signatures from the state's voters, including 2% of the total registered voters in each of Colorado's 35 Senate districts, according to the secretary of state's office.
Coloradans for Protecting Reproductive Freedom said its volunteers gathered more than 225,000 signatures and met the district requirements, as well. The deadline to turn the signatures in is April 18. A person familiar with the operation told CBS News that the group expects challenges from opposition groups on the validity of the signatures.
The announcement underscores the ongoing push to put abortion on the ballot at the state level after the Supreme Court ended federal abortion protections with the Dobbs v. Jackson decision, which struck down the landmark decision Roe v. Wade.
Last week, the Florida Supreme Court cleared the way for an abortion rights constitutional amendment to appear on the ballot this fall, and Arizona organizers also announced that they've surpassed the signature threshold for a ballot measure.
Similar efforts are underway in multiple other states.
Abortion is currently legal in Colorado, but the constitutional amendment would prevent the government from taking away the right and override a 1984 measure that prohibits health insurance from covering abortion care for "public employees and people on public insurance."
Jess Grennan, campaign director of Coloradans for Protecting Reproductive Freedom, said in a statement that the recent decision by the Arizona Supreme Court to allow an 1864 law that would ban most abortions to go into effect "ultimately exposed just how vulnerable every state is, and will remain, without passing legislation that constitutionally secures the right to abortion."
"Ballot measures like Proposition 89 are our first line of defense against government overreach and our best tool to protect the freedom to make personal, private healthcare decisions—a right that should never depend on the source of one's health insurance or who is in office, because a right without access is a right in name only," Grennan said.
The amendment would need a supermajority of 55% support from voters to pass, according to the Colorado secretary of state's office.
Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, abortion rights measures have seen success in every state where they've been placed on the ballot — even in more conservative states like Kansas and Ohio.
There is also a separate movement in Colorado for a ballot measure that would define a child as "any living human being from the moment human life biologically begins at conception through every stage of biological development until the child reaches emancipation as an adult" and would prohibit harm to such — effectively banning nearly all abortions.
- In:
- Colorado
- Abortion
Shawna Mizelle is a 2024 campaign reporter for CBS News.
Twitter InstagramveryGood! (8755)
Related
- Hackers hit Rhode Island benefits system in major cyberattack. Personal data could be released soon
- Feds push back against judge and say troubled California prison should be shut down without delay
- More human remains believed those of missing woman wash up on beach
- Suspect in fire outside of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Vermont office to remain detained, judge says
- Gen. Mark Milley's security detail and security clearance revoked, Pentagon says
- Chicago’s response to migrant influx stirs longstanding frustrations among Black residents
- California shooting that left 4 dead and earlier killing of 2 cousins are linked, investigators say
- Indianapolis man charged with murder in fatal shootings of 3 at apartment complex
- South Korean president's party divided over defiant martial law speech
- Cheryl Burke recalls 'Dancing With the Stars' fans making her feel 'too fat for TV'
Ranking
- Rolling Loud 2024: Lineup, how to stream the world's largest hip hop music festival
- Dubai flooding hobbles major airport's operations as historic weather event brings torrential rains to UAE
- New attorney joins prosecution team against Alec Baldwin in fatal ‘Rust’ shooting
- Ahead of Season 2, How 'The Jinx' led to Robert Durst's long-awaited conviction
- Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, Hi Hi!
- 'Fortnight' with Post Malone is lead single, video off Taylor Swift's 'Tortured Poets'
- Lawsuit filed over new Kentucky law aimed at curbing youth vaping
- 2 more endangered ferrets cloned from animal frozen in the 1980s: Science takes time
Recommendation
Whoopi Goldberg is delightfully vile as Miss Hannigan in ‘Annie’ stage return
Georgia governor signs income tax cuts as property tax measure heads to November ballot
Mariska Hargitay Helps Little Girl Reunite With Mom After She's Mistaken for Real-Life Cop
Canadian police charge 9 suspects in historic $20 million airport gold heist
Juan Soto to be introduced by Mets at Citi Field after striking record $765 million, 15
Maryland teen charged with planning school shooting after police review writings, internet searches
2024 Kentucky Derby: Latest odds, schedule, and how to watch at Churchill Downs
Man granted parole for his role in the 2001 stabbing deaths of 2 Dartmouth College professors