Colorado now guarantees the right to abortion in state law

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

For a governor who has otherwise been very moderate and pushing back on his party's extreme tendencies, this is quite a hard-left approach. Abortions up until birth for any reason is deeply disturbing and immoral imo, killing what could be a well-functioning baby outside the womb, and I think most people (not on the internet) would agree. When I say I'm moderately pro-choice these days, I have to also provide a massive caveat that I don't favor this, but I don't want Roe v Wade overturned like the pro-life crowd does.

This is consistent with Polis's very strident left-libertarian mindset. Whether any given position deriving from that mindset is perceived as "moderate" or "extreme" by people who aren't political philosophers is historically contingent verging on arbitrary.

[John Dule]

Assuming Roe.V. Wade gets overturned, I would expect the Supreme Court to quickly instate fetal personhood into the constitution to prevent things like this (maybe not in the same decision, but possibly very shortly thereafter.)

I agree, which is why it's hard for me to get excited about the new Colorado law.

For more hard-hitting analysis like this, contact Doom & Doomer: attorneys at law.

[OSR stands with Israel]

The Democrats have really gone battsh**t crazy on this issue over the last decade.

You say this as Republicans allow any random person to sue women who get abortions after six weeks?

Banning it at 6 weeks >>> Keeping it legal on the last day

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

The Democrats have really gone battsh**t crazy on this issue over the last decade.

You say this as Republicans allow any random person to sue women who get abortions after six weeks?

Banning it at 6 weeks >>> Keeping it legal on the last day

The cutoff point, bizarre as it is to put it that early while maintaining the pretense of legal abortion, isn't the most egregious thing about the way SB8 is structured and you know it.

[Ferguson97]

The Democrats have really gone battsh**t crazy on this issue over the last decade.

You say this as Republicans allow any random person to sue women who get abortions after six weeks?

Banning it at 6 weeks >>> Keeping it legal on the last day

Cutting it off at 6 weeks is a de-facto ban, because that's right around when most women just find out that they're pregnant.

[OSR stands with Israel]

The Democrats have really gone battsh**t crazy on this issue over the last decade.

You say this as Republicans allow any random person to sue women who get abortions after six weeks?

Banning it at 6 weeks >>> Keeping it legal on the last day

Cutting it off at 6 weeks is a de-facto ban, because that's right around when most women just find out that they're pregnant.

Well I prefer a de-facto ban than keeping it legal on the last day

[Hermit For Peace]

It seems to be very broad, and doesn't make any distinctions, so far as I can tell, with regards to viability. The law is to the left of where I stand on this issue. I generally think abortion should be permitted, but there should be restrictions in place and late-term abortions should not be permitted under any circumstances save rape, incest, and life/health of the mother and/or child. I'm not confident that this law provides for those exceptions.

Agreed. I hate how the right (in an effort to appeal to the rabid religious right) has become dangerously far-right on abortion to the point of wanting it basically banned, and how the left (in an effort to pander to a #progressive #woke #pro-choice #feminist base) has moved a lot to the left from 'safe, legal and rare' (which is where I stand). The two parties both moving away from the centre on abortion to radical extremes is not something I support. Why can't both parties work with the consensus opinion of Americans on this issue - it should be easy to get an abortion if it's necessary, but there should be some common sense restrictions.

Still, if I had to pick between CO's far-left law and MO's (proposed) far-right law, I'd hold my nose and choose CO's. I just wish it wasn't a choice we had to make and we could settle for laws on abortion that weren't extremist.

The bolded is the high road, the intelligent way. It sounds so simple and seems so simple, but human emotion and fear of God get people all in a tizzy. I guess there will be no meaningful way to solve our abortion crisis until we address these two issues.

Letting human emotion make our decisions instead of doing what's the most viable thing to do, and fear of God. Seems to me that these are the two biggies that society needs to have a conversation about before any meaningful changes can take place with regard to how we handle abortion.

[Ferguson97]

The Democrats have really gone battsh**t crazy on this issue over the last decade.

You say this as Republicans allow any random person to sue women who get abortions after six weeks?

Banning it at 6 weeks >>> Keeping it legal on the last day

Cutting it off at 6 weeks is a de-facto ban, because that's right around when most women just find out that they're pregnant.

Well I prefer a de-facto ban than keeping it legal on the last day

How many women do you think are going to be getting elective abortions on their due date?

[Schiff for Senate]

The Democrats have really gone battsh**t crazy on this issue over the last decade.

You say this as Republicans allow any random person to sue women who get abortions after six weeks?

Banning it at 6 weeks >>> Keeping it legal on the last day

Cutting it off at 6 weeks is a de-facto ban, because that's right around when most women just find out that they're pregnant.

Well I prefer a de-facto ban than keeping it legal on the last day

How many women do you think are going to be getting elective abortions on their due date?

That's not OSR's point. There might be very few women who actually wait until they're 9 months pregnant to abort, and quite possibly none, but the point is that abortion is legal for the entire time, so hypothetically, at 8.5 months, an abortion could occur. If it's true that no woman at all even gets an abortion after a certain point (excluding partial-birth abortion to save the mother's life, which is allowed anyway), then why not allow abortion up until that point? This bill literally allows a woman to abort at 8.5 months, and for no real reason at that, and that's what I find so mind-blowing  I find the fact that CO actually made a law about this worrying because it basically lets moderates on the abortion issue like myself know that both parties are much more radical on this issue.

It's possible to oppose the laws on abortion in MO, TX, AL and other red states, but to also have the backbone to criticize your own party's extremism on the issue. It's not either or - unfortunately, both parties are dangerously extreme on abortion at this point.

[MarkD]

I think it is very understandable why many people would go so far to "keep abortion safe and legal" that they would even make abortion legal under all circumstances and even up to the last month of pregnancy. A huge reason they would go that far is because the most adamant and emphatic arguments for the pro-choice view are stated in terms of being absolute and non-negotiable. It happens when female pro-choicers state their point of view with six simple and straightforward words:
Keep your laws off my body!!

I don't know about the rest of you, but every time I heard those words (audibly) or see them in print (visually), I have the feeling deep within me that someone nearby is scratching their nails on a chalkboard. It sounds like screeching harpies. The implicit message is perfectly clear: abortion rights are absolute and non-negotiable. So there is no point in me even trying to negotiate with people who say that, right? When I contemplate the severity and emphasis placed on how important that the right to abortion is to people who say those six words, I feel like acceding to and completely surrendering to their demands:
Alright, alright! I absolutely will not touch your body - via law - whatsoever! I will give you whatever you want! Please! Just stop screeching!

So yes, I quite understand why Jared Polis and the male-dominated CO state senate would accede to the demand of so many pro-choice women that the right to abortion must be completely and absolutely non-negotiable. And here's to the phenomenon of many more states making similar laws. Just so long as it means no more screeching harpies.

[lfromnj]

For a governor who has otherwise been very moderate and pushing back on his party's extreme tendencies, this is quite a hard-left approach. Abortions up until birth for any reason is deeply disturbing and immoral imo, killing what could be a well-functioning baby outside the womb, and I think most people (not on the internet) would agree. When I say I'm moderately pro-choice these days, I have to also provide a massive caveat that I don't favor this, but I don't want Roe v Wade overturned like the pro-life crowd does.

Colorado is pretty strongly pro choice. Its perfectly safe politically.

[Ferguson97]

I don't know about the rest of you, but every time I heard those words (audibly) or see them in print (visually), I have the feeling deep within me that someone nearby is scratching their nails on a chalkboard. It sounds like screeching harpies.

Just so long as it means no more screeching harpies.

"Screeching harpies"? Lol, what year is this?

[Calthrina950]

For a governor who has otherwise been very moderate and pushing back on his party's extreme tendencies, this is quite a hard-left approach. Abortions up until birth for any reason is deeply disturbing and immoral imo, killing what could be a well-functioning baby outside the womb, and I think most people (not on the internet) would agree. When I say I'm moderately pro-choice these days, I have to also provide a massive caveat that I don't favor this, but I don't want Roe v Wade overturned like the pro-life crowd does.

Colorado is pretty strongly pro choice. Its perfectly safe politically.

You're right about this. There have been multiple ballot initiatives aiming to restrict abortion or to enact "personhood" over the past several years, and all of them have been defeated by landslide margins. And there is now an effort to place another ballot initiative that would enshrine abortion as a constitutional right. I wouldn't be surprised if that passes. But I don't think ElectionsGuy was saying that this would hurt Polis or Democrats in Colorado. He was expressing his disagreements with them about it, and where many, if not most, Americans would stand on the issue.

[David Hume]

For a governor who has otherwise been very moderate and pushing back on his party's extreme tendencies, this is quite a hard-left approach. Abortions up until birth for any reason is deeply disturbing and immoral imo, killing what could be a well-functioning baby outside the womb, and I think most people (not on the internet) would agree. When I say I'm moderately pro-choice these days, I have to also provide a massive caveat that I don't favor this, but I don't want Roe v Wade overturned like the pro-life crowd does.

This will hurt his presidential bid, as R can simply paint him as a pro-9-month-abortion radical left. The religious right will turn out heavily against him in states like GA, and even the religious Black there might not vote for him.

[politicallefty]

Isn't what the right has been wanting for decades? The issue of abortion is returning to the states. I think virtually everyone is expecting Roe to be overturned by late June. I'm not saying I support this, but the balance has been seriously upset with doctors in many states potentially facing prosecution once Roe falls. Most states have never really tried to expand abortion rights, even after Planned Parenthood v. Casey.