COLORADO – Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights (COLOR) and abortion justice organization All* Above All are highlighting Colorado’s leadership in protecting access to emergency medical care with the passage of SB25-130. This legislation strengthened the rights of patients and responsibilities of providers in emergencies, including those related to abortion and miscarriage care.
The law was passed just before the Trump administration announced that it would revoke guidance to the nation’s hospitals that directed them to provide emergency abortions and stabilize patients under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA). It also comes at a time when Congress is voting on the most significant proposed cuts to Medicaid in history. This decision, healthcare advocacy organizations say, will result in millions losing their health insurance.
SB25-130 prohibits the denial of emergency care based on a patient’s ability to pay, the type of care needed, or non-medical transfers or discharges.
“We have seen the real-life harms that have jeopardized lives across this country – people unable to get care because politicians and courts have substituted their own beliefs for the wisdom of providers and the lived reality of patients,” said Vanessa Martinez, Vice President of Policy at COLOR. “State standards for emergency care are more important than ever as Congress threatens to cut funding for Medicaid and other affordable health care programs. This will cause more people to lose insurance coverage and be forced to emergency rooms to get care when unaddressed health needs turn to crises. Our state must continue to center impacted communities, patients, and providers over tax breaks for the wealthy, insurance companies, religious hospital associations, and those with anti-abortion agendas. We must make it clear that in Colorado, patients’ health and safety should come first.”
“The Trump administration and anti-abortion extremists in Congress have actively erased the remaining guidance for hospitals around EMTALA – stoking more of the fear and confusion that is already putting lives on the line in waiting rooms and emergency rooms across the country,” said Nourbese Flint, President of All* Above All. “While Colorado is protected due to the state’s efforts to ensure abortion access for its residents and closing long standing gaps in care that have disproportionately impacted people of color and working families, the EMTALA guidance rollback underscores how essential these protections are with a federal government becoming more and more hostile to women and birthing people.”
“I review maternal deaths and the cases that scare me the most are people that are dying from miscarriage and not receiving treatment,” said Lorell Erwin, Certified Nurse Midwife and Family Nurse Practitioner in Colorado. “Standards around medical care are so important, especially when it comes to life-saving care like abortion that is so politicized. As a healthcare worker, I’ve taken an oath to do no harm to the people I care for and withholding life saving care like abortion is harmful.”
COLOR and All* Above All point to the tragic deaths of women who were denied and delayed care in emergency situations – Josseli Barnica, Candi Miller, and Amber Thurman among them. Their stories serve as a sobering reminder of the consequences of reducing access to emergency care in the United States.
“People think things like this don’t happen in Colorado, but they do, they have,” said Emily Sheridan Mahoney, mother of twins in Denver, Colorado. “After giving birth, I was septic, bleeding, and begging for care. But I was denied abortion care when I needed it most. We should be able to get emergency care when we need it. Instead, I was caught in a system more concerned with politics than patients. But I’m still here, fighting for our babies and our lives.”
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About COLOR
Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights (COLOR) is a community-rooted nonprofit organization that works to enable Latine individuals and their families to lead safe, healthy, and self-determined lives. Founded in 1998, we are the only Latina-led and Latina-serving multi-entity reproductive justice organization in the state. We bring an intersectional approach to our fight for reproductive justice, advancing issues impacting the Latine community in the areas of autonomy, health care, civil rights, economic justice, and immigration.
