(Oregon Right to Life) — A Colorado bill that would require late-term abortion facilities to undergo the same regulation as many health care facilities in the state failed to advance in the Colorado legislature last week. Like Oregon, Colorado allows legal abortion up to the moment of birth.
Sponsored by Republican Representative Scott Bottoms, House Bill 1252 would have required abortion facilities that perform abortions in the second and third trimesters to be regulated by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE).
Abortion facilities are not currently subject to CDPHE regulation. The agency oversees many health centers statewide.
“CDPHE is authorized to license, regulate, and inspect a wide spectrum of health-care facilities to ensure public health and safety, including freestanding emergency departments, critical access hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, community clinics, rehabilitation hospitals, convalescent centers, facilities for persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities, nursing care facilities, hospice care, assisted living residences, dialysis treatment clinics, ambulatory surgical centers, birthing centers, and home care agencies,” the legislation states.
“Gynecologic dilation and curettage (D&C) and second- and third-trimester obstetric D&C, dilation and evacuation, dilation and extraction, and inductions of labor are all normally performed in facilities regulated by CDPHE,” the text of the bill continues. “The exception to this protocol is when these same procedures are used during an elective induced abortion at abortion clinics in the second and third trimester.”
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That discrepancy comes in spite of the fact that late-term abortions are associated with an increased risk of maternal death compared to abortions performed earlier in pregnancy.
“The risk of dying from an abortion increases 38% for each week of gestation after 8 weeks,” a statistic published in a 2004 study. “[U]nregulated second- and third-trimester abortion clinics place Colorado women’s lives in jeopardy and should be regulated by CDPHE.”
Witnesses who testified in favor of House Bill 1252 during a March 11 legislative committee hearing included individuals who spoke about Alexis (Lexi) Lynn Arguello, an 18-year-old Colorado girl who died February 6 of an amniotic fluid embolism (AFE). Arguello passed away after being transferred to a hospital from a Fort Collins Planned Parenthood facility, where she obtained an abortion while 22 weeks pregnant.
The condition that Arguello died from is a rare but extremely serious blood-clotting condition that can occur after an abortion or a birth.
Data indicate that the risk of fatal amniotic fluid embolism following abortion is far higher depending on the gestational age of the unborn baby – “from nil at less than or equal to 12 weeks’ gestation to 7.2 deaths per 100,000 abortions at greater than or equal to 21 weeks’ gestation.” Colorado – like Oregon – permits abortion at any stage of pregnancy, up to the moment of birth, for any reason.
A 2022 case study of the amniotic fluid embolism, cited in an article by the pro-life watchdog group Operation Rescue, states that “suspicion of AFE should prompt a multidisciplinary team including anaesthesia, respiratory therapy, critical care, and maternal-foetal medicine to be involved in the ongoing care of women with AFE.”
During the legislative session, former Utah OB/GYN Dr. Catherine Wheeler testified that Arguello may have survived if she had been “immediately transported to the hospital,” Live Action reported. Wheeler did not examine the 18-year-old’s medical records but is a former abortion provider who is now an outspoken pro-life advocate. It’s unclear how much time elapsed before Arguello was transferred to a hospital.
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House Bill 1252 would have created greater protections for Colorado women like Arguello. Despite the risks posed to women, the proposed legislation failed to advance in the Colorado legislature.
