Colorado bishops call new law offering tax dollars for abortion a ‘tragedy’

 

CNA Staff, Apr 25, 2025 / 15:51 pm (CNA).

Catholic leaders in Colorado this week decried a new state law signed by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis on Thursday that will mandate taxpayer funding for elective abortions.

Colorado was already one of the most permissive states in the country in terms of abortion. Voters in November 2024 approved Amendment 79, which enshrined in the state constitution the state laws already in place that allow abortion through all nine months of pregnancy.

One of the two new laws Polis signed April 24 — passed by the Legislature as Senate Bill 183 — implements Amendment 79, setting the date for it to ultimately take effect at the beginning of 2026.

As part of the new law, an earlier provision in the state constitution that prohibited public funds for abortion has now been repealed; the new law requires abortion coverage for Medicaid patients and Child Health Plan Plus program recipients using state money.

Public employees’ insurance plans will also have to cover abortion, the Denver Post reported.

Bishops: Public funding of abortion violates ‘dignity of human life’

In an April 24 statement, the Colorado Catholic Conference, which represents the state’s bishops, said the new law will force Coloradans to “fund elective abortion up to birth using our tax dollars.”

The conference had strongly urged all people to vote no on Amendment 79 during last year’s campaign, noting that among other things, it would open the door for direct taxpayer funding for abortion.

“The allocation of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds to subsidize the deliberate ending of innocent life and harm of women is a tragedy for Colorado,” the bishops wrote April 24.

“Rather than using state resources to support life-affirming alternatives, SB25-183 prioritizes public funding of abortion at the expense of the lives of preborn children, the health of their mothers, and the conscience rights of millions of Colorado taxpayers who morally object to abortion.”

In an open letter sent earlier this month — co-signed by Archbishop Samuel Aquila and Auxiliary Bishop Jorge Rodriguez of the Archdiocese of Denver, Bishop James Golka of Colorado Springs, and Bishop Stephen Berg of Pueblo — the bishops said the proposal “violates the dignity of human life” and “disregards the safety of women.”

They urged the governor “to consider the millions of Coloradans who do not want their hard-earned tax dollars to be used in the destruction of human life.”

State analysts have estimated the cost of public coverage of abortion at nearly $5.9 million per year, with some savings — perhaps only as much as $573,000 — realized for the state because of the lower cost of covering abortion rather than supporting the babies’ births.

However, the Colorado bishops disputed the state’s analysis, noting that according to data published in 2024 from the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, 62% of abortions in Colorado are paid for using Medicaid.

The cost of the state expanding taxpayer payment to virtually all abortions, including more expensive late-term abortions — especially given a likely loss of federal support — will potentially cost the state closer to $8.5 million per year.

Michael New, a senior associate scholar at the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute and assistant professor of practice at the Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America, called the arguments for the bill “bad economics and even worse ethics.”

In his analysis of the bill for the Charlotte Lozier Institute, New found that when state Medicaid programs cover abortions, the number of abortions increases. The Colorado bill will increase the number of abortions in Colorado by more than 1,800 annually, New said.

“[T]he federal government subsidizes other health services covered by Colorado’s Medicaid program. Colorado taxpayers pay for only a fraction of the cost of Medicaid births,” New wrote at National Review earlier this month.

“Indeed, contrary to the assertion of Colorado Democrats, covering elective abortion would cost Colorado taxpayers money.”

The other law Polis signed, passed as Senate Bill 129, will ramp up the state’s 2023 shield law to guard abortion providers and patients, and their data, from out-of-state investigations and other actions, the Denver Post reported.

Twenty states and Washington, D.C., now allow Medicaid programs to use state taxpayer dollars to cover elective abortions.