Colorado Legislators Kill Bill That Would Have Banned Most Abortions 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 12, 2007
Denver, CO (LifeNews.com) — Colorado legislators voted on Monday to kill a bill that would have offered legal protection to unborn children who are victims of abortion. The measure, modeled after the abortion ban the South Dakota state legislature approved last year, would have banned most abortions, except in very rare cases to save the life of the mother.
Sen. Scott Renfroe of Greeley sponsored the bill that he called "the civil rights issue of our generation."
"Today’s aborted baby is the black slave of our history," he told the legislators during the hearing. "When will we stop turning our heads and hiding behind the word choice?"
Members of both sides of the abortion debate spoke on the bill for an hour each before the Senate Judiciary Committee defeated the measure on a 4-3 vote.
Senate President Joan Fitzgerald spoke against the bill saying that it would "rob every woman of the right to make fundamental choices over her body."
"We fought for it, we have it and we will not compromise on it," Fitzgerald said according to an AP report.
Renfroe’s bill would have also redefined the term pregnancy — changing it from the current definition of implantation to the more scientifically accurate term of fertilization.
This is the second pro-life bill the Colorado state legislature has killed during this legislative session. The same committee also defeated an unborn victims bill that would have allowed two murder charges when both mother and baby are killed.
Pregnant women like Amanda Hanson and their unborn children who are killed in acts of violence still won’t receive appropriate justice under Colorado law as a result of that vote.
Amanda was strangled in 2002 and Erin Hanson appeared before the committee on her daughter’s behalf.
She wore a T-shirt with Amanda’s photo on it and asked for justice for the death of both her daughter and unborn grandson. The attacker received life in prison for Amanda’s death but was not charged in the death of her unborn child.
Hanson said her unborn grandson "had as much a right to life as she did" when her pregnant daughter Amanda Lynn was murdered.
"His life was intentionally taken," she said.
Showing the need for the bill, the legislators point to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, which says more than 1,300 pregnant women in the United States were killed from 1990 to 2004
They also cite a study the American Journal of Public Health published in 2005 showing homicide is the second most common cause of death for pregnant women.
Abortion frequently plays a factor in such deaths because a boyfriend or husband who doesn’t want to become a father pressures his partner to have an abortion. After refusing, that confrontation over what to do about the pregnancy can lead to a physical altercation resulting in an assault of the mother or her death.
Related web sites:
Colorado State Legislature – https://www.leg.state.co.us
