DENVER — Colorado abortion rights groups said the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has led to "extreme stress" in the state's reproductive healthcare system.
Colorado legislators have not restricted abortion access in the state since the June 2022 Dobbs decision, but limits in other states have sent patients seeking care to Colorado, the reproductive rights group Cobalt said.
"You have physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners with their backs up against the wall," said Cobalt Director of Strategic Partnerships Dani Newsom. "They've extended hours because they're trying to provide care for so many more people."
Cobalt helps pay for travel, hotels and other expenses for people seeking abortion care — and it said the amount has skyrocketed.
"In 2021, we spent just north of $6,000 in practical support. In 2022, it was more than $220,000," Newsom said.
The majority of the people coming from across the country are from Texas, Newsom said.
"It's what we can do. Cobalt has never turned away a human being in need of abortion care and we never will," said Newsom.
She said the Dobbs decision has caused other changes in Colorado too. More OB-GYNs are moving here, state legislators have passed more laws protecting abortion and the patients who seek them, and reproductive groups have teamed up in a way they hadn't before, she said.
"The networks that have been formed, the partnerships that have been formed, those are going to last," Newsom said.
Cobalt said it also plans to reinforce reproductive care in Colorado by adding protections to the state constitution, which would require a 2024 ballot measure.
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