Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1473400
8 JULY 2022 | DENVER CATHOLIC A mericans, both pro-life and pro-abor- tion, anxiously awaited the U.S. Supreme Court decision Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which was released on June 24, a day that will go down in history as the day that Roe v. Wade was overturned. That decision, along with Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), have both plagued our country for half of a century by establishing an arbitrary "right" to abortion and viability tests that restrict states from prohibiting abortion before viability. These precedents had been cited by scholars on both sides of the issue as poorly decided, as the United States Constitution makes no reference to abortion and has no constitutional protection for abortion. Roe and Casey being struck down is great news for America! Now that these decisions are overturned, the question on abortion legality pre-viability will be returned to the state legislatures. For Colorado, it means that the status quo of the newly enacted HB22-1279 Reproductive Health Equity Act (RHEA) will not change immediately, and more work needs to be done for preborn children — and that is where Pro-Life Colorado comes in. The Reproductive Health Equity Act (RHEA) was introduced in the Colorado General Assem- bly on March 3, 2022 and signed into law by Governor Jared Polis by April 4. The bill was rushed through the legislative process to sup- press the voices of millions of Coloradans. Yet, within three weeks, more than 350 Coloradans testified against RHEA in the House and over 215 in the Senate, pro-life lawmakers attempted to filibuster in both houses (for 24 hours in the House and 14 hours in the Senate), and nearly 1,000 Coloradans rallied against the bill on the steps of the Capitol on March 12. But perhaps most noteworthy is that the tragically unjust RHEA brought many pro-life organizations in the state of Colorado together to formally unite for the first time as one single voice: Pro-Life Colorado. Pro-Life Colorado is the formal coalition of all 22 pro-life groups in the state of Colorado, BY BRITTANY VESSELY Wife, Mother and Executive Director of the Colorado Catholic Conference ARO U N D TH E ARCH D IOCE S E Pro-Life Colorado The Unified Voice of the Pro-Life Movement in Colorado Photo by André Escaleira, Jr.