There was some good news on election night after all. Colorado’s Prop 115, a measure that would have banned abortions at 22 weeks, was voted down last night by 59.2% of voters according to the Denver Post. Because this seems to be the election year where full results are delayed, the Post notes that only 83% of the vote has been counted thus far, but determined the margins were large enough to call.
Had the measure passed, administering a later abortion would’ve left doctors subject to “misdemeanor charges and at least a three-year suspension of their license,” wrote the Post, and the only allowable form of such abortions would have been in cases where it was required to save the life of the mother. Later term abortions account for 1.3% of total abortions. Abortion has been decriminalized in Colorado since 1967 but over the years attempts have been made to limit abortion access with some groups advocating for “personhood amendments” which would ban abortion in the state outright. But for now, the reproductive rights of Coloradans are safe.
On a different part of the giant touch screen magic map, Louisiana voted to amend its state constitution to “expressly state the document offers no protections for a right to abortion or the funding of abortion,” CNN reports. The amendment, which reads in part “to protect human life” and mandates no protections for abortion can be found in the state constitution, is projected to be approved by 62% of the state. As the country becomes laser-focused on the future of Roe v. Wade, a representative from Louisiana Right to Life told CNN, “If Roe v. Wade is overturned, then this state is certainly ready to become a pro-life state.”
Capital punishment is still legal in Louisiana, the wanna-be pro-life state.