Colorado DAs, AG vow not to prosecute abortion cases

DENVER (KDVR) — Prosecutors, corporations and organizations are sounding off after the Supreme Court ruled to allow states to create their own abortion laws.

It was a historic moment in the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday. This decision divided much of the country.

Abortion rights, anti-abortion views on decision

“Donald Trump was able to get himself elected president and put three radical judges on the court. And this is the result. That’s a tragedy. We can’t unwrite history but what we can do is fight for our daughter’s rights and fight for our granddaughters’ rights,” U.S. Senator Michael Bennet said.

“This country doesn’t take rights away from people. And that’s what the Supreme Court of the United States did,” Bennet said.

“It should be a constitutional right for these preborn children who have died since Roe v. Wade and then going forward,” Vessely said.

Despite the decision in the Supreme Court, Colorado’s Reproductive Health Equity Act still ensures protection for women in our state.

“What Coloradans do have in our state is a lot, hundreds, nearly 1,000 pregnancy centers and resources for families, not just women, that are in need of prenatal and postnatal, across the state of Colorado. So there is no reason to kill a baby in their mother’s womb,” Vessely said.

“I think about the women in this country who fought for 100 years for the self-evident right to vote. You know, and, and they never gave up. And we can’t give up,” Bennet said.

On abortion rights, prosecutors, corporations take a stance

Corporations have announced that they’re taking steps to protection their employees’ abortion access.

CVS Health said it’s covering out-of-state care, and Dick’s Sporting Goods said it provides up to $4,000 in travel expenses to help access care.

Patagonia said it will cover travel expenses for care and bail for employees who are peacefully protesting the decision. JPMorgan Chase said it will expand its existing healthcare travel benefit to include out-of-state abortion care.

Additionally, seven Colorado district attorneys and the attorney general, as well as 84 leading prosecutors nationwide, vowed to not prosecute abortion cases.

“Not all of us agree on a personal or moral level on the issue of abortion. But we stand together in
our firm belief that prosecutors have a responsibility to refrain from using limited criminal legal
system resources to criminalize personal medical decisions,” reads the letter signed by prosecutors nationwide. “As such, we decline to use our offices’ resources to criminalize reproductive health decisions and commit to exercise our well-settled discretion and refrain from prosecuting those who seek, provide, or support abortions.”