Opinion: Amendment 79 would harm pregnant Colorado women and their babies

As an OB-GYN who has practiced for 24 years, including performing second-trimester abortions on “special needs” babies, I was shocked when I moved to Colorado and discovered that abortions are legal throughout pregnancy, and carried out mainly on healthy mothers and babies. I didn’t know this happened anywhere in the world.

Colorado’s abortion laws are among the most extreme in the world, according to a recent analysis, and it is one of nine states plus Washington, D.C., that allow abortion at any stage of pregnancy. This is not a good thing. After eight weeks of pregnancy, the risk of dying from miscarriage increases exponentially by 38% per week. Mortality in the six months to 10 years after late-term abortion is much higher than after live birth. Considering the size of a woman’s abdomen in the third trimester, how does an abortionist deliver a baby that size? I looked it up – the baby procedure is horrible.

The current abortion law was passed in 2022, despite 10 to 1 citizen testimony in opposition at the hearing I attended. Now, the citizens of Colorado will be personally responsible for determining whether this extreme abortion law is enshrined in the Constitution, and taxpayers will be forced to fund abortion through the 79th Amendment. The Colorado Constitution should protect the disposal of pre-existing human beings. -born at all gestational ages for whatever reason, preclude all safety protections for women and exclude any parental involvement, even for a 12 year old girl? This is an enormous responsibility with profound consequences. Please educate yourself before voting.

The abortion industry’s strategy is always the same: protect abortion, not women. They call this “access” protection.

Let’s say you need surgery. Do you go to any providers or facilities? Or do you want your surgeon to have adequate training and experience, verified credentials, no succession of medical malpractice? Do you insist that the surgery center be inspected, licensed, have a low complication rate, and be prepared to handle complications and emergencies?

In Colorado, unlike ambulatory surgery centers and hospitals, there is no licensing, regulation, inspection, or oversight of abortion clinics. Abortion providers are not required to have specific training or experience, nor are they required to manage complications. This is a blatant disregard for women’s health and lives and unlike any other healthcare. This initiative would be a barrier to common-sense regulation when egregious malpractice occurs.

The abortion advertising campaign will focus on confusing the public and causing fear with misinformation. So let’s make clear what’s true up front:

Induced abortion to save a woman’s life is legal in all states. Abortion advocates use the word “health,” which means…anything, including social and financial.
Colorado’s public financing (Medicaid) pays for abortion when the pregnancy results from rape or incest and to save the mother’s life.
Health care for miscarriages (the baby died of natural causes) and ectopic pregnancies (the baby implanted outside the uterus, a life-threatening condition) is legal in all states. This is not abortion care and does not require legal abortion. Refusing to provide care to women under these conditions constitutes medical negligence and is not the result of restrictions on abortion.
Refusal to offer birth to women with life-threatening pregnancy complications, such as infection with predictable rupture of membranes, constitutes medical negligence. It is not the result of restricting abortion. No state requires a woman to be at death’s door to receive life-saving health care.
The abortion industry promotes misinformation that late-term abortions (after viability) are done primarily to save a woman’s life or for a life-limiting fetal diagnosis. However, the data reveals that women choose late abortion for the same reasons as before: mainly social and financial. Dr. Warren Hern, a third-trimester abortionist in Boulder, reported that 70% of the abortions he performs are on healthy mothers and babies, including some for sex selection. Colorado reported 468 late-term abortions last year – 1 in every 33 abortions.
Potentially life-threatening complications following fetal viability are treated more quickly and safely with delivery in a hospital setting, where continuous intensive monitoring and emergency intervention are immediately available. This does not require intentional killing of the viable baby. Late-term abortion involves intermittent care, typically for three or more days, without the availability of immediate emergency interventions.

In the US, 86% to 93% of obstetrician-gynecologists do not perform abortions. Abortion has never been necessary to provide exemplary health care. We have always known how to deal with potentially life-threatening pregnancy complications without directly taking the baby’s life.

Amendment 79 would protect abortion and those who profit from it, not women. It’s time for Colorado to take its place as a leader in excellent health care for women and preborn babies.

Our radically extreme abortion laws put women’s lives and health in grave danger and harm us all. Pregnant women and their babies deserve excellent, equitable health care and support during difficult situations, not abortion as the only state-sanctioned option.

Dr. Catherine J. Wheeler lives in Teller County and is an obstetrician-gynecologist.

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