ADL Testifies Against Bill Banning Abortion in Colorado

Denver, CO, February 26, 2015…The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) testified today in opposition to a bill that would have inserted a religious definition of life in state law and banned abortion in Colorado. The legislation, House Bill 1041, was defeated in the House Judiciary Committee on a 7-6 vote.

ADL Mountain States Region Board member Andrea Shpall represented ADL and testified against the bill.

Colorado voters have three times voted against this proposed personhood measure at the ballot box and we should not let this extreme measure become state law,” Shpall said. “This bill would violate the religious freedom of Coloradans, violate the United States Constitution, provide insufficient exceptions, and result in a litany of harmful, unintended consequences.”

Colorado State Representatives Stephen Humphrey and Kim Ransom sponsored the bill that was identical to a bill defeated in the legislature during the 2014 session. The bill proposed prohibiting abortion from the moment of conception and making a violation a class 3 felony. The bill would have also outlawed abortion in cases of rape and incest.

The committee voted to postpone the bill indefinitely. As a result, the measure will not be addressed again during the 2015 legislative session. ADL is grateful to Shpall for testifying and to its Government Affairs Sub-Committee for its commitment to speaking out against policies that attack religious freedom and individual liberty.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world’s leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.