By Kaylee Kaestle

Reproductive rights are an essential part of the ability for women and all pregnant people to achieve socio-economic independence. Now that Roe has been officially overturned, drastic economic disadvantages are likely to plague women around the country. Colorado has long been at the forefront when it comes to policies on abortion, contraception, and other reproductive health policies. We were the first state to loosen abortion restrictions — even before the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade — making it a groundbreaking setting for reproductive rights advocacy and legislative decisions. 

This year, Colorado lawmakers codified the right to abortion in the state in response to the possible overturning of Roe. The Reproductive Health Equity Act (RHEA) had already been passed by the legislature and signed into law a month before Politico leaked a draft of a Supreme Court decision that would overturn the nearly 50-year-old precedent. Colorado will almost certainly see an increase in people seeking services created by a ripple effect of surrounding states —  like Oklahoma, Idaho, and Utah — passing bans and restrictions. Knowing that Roe was likely to be overturned, Colorado abortion providers have already been working hard to ensure they can continue to serve people seeking abortion and other reproductive health services without overwhelming our clinics and practitioners by preparing for a major influx of people coming from surrounding states seeking services. 

Because of these expected restrictions, it’s never been more important to lift up the economic implications of abortion bans and the widespread research that supports the sentiment that anti-choice legislation leads to drastic economic instability for those already facing numerous economic barriers. 

Historically, abortion bans have been detrimental to the overall economic prosperity of women. According to a 2019 analysis by the Institute For Women’s Policy Research, “Existing children in the households of women who were denied abortions were more likely to be living below the federal poverty level several years later than existing children of women who received abortions.” Likewise, half of all people who seek abortions live below the poverty level and 75 percent earn low income. Without the proper financial resources, women are much more likely to struggle with providing economic stability for themselves and their children, often leading to a continuous cycle of poverty.

Because of the structural barriers that limit access to reproductive health care, Black women are most likely to be negatively affected by abortion bans, and they are more likely to live in states that have restrictive reproductive health care legislation that typically doesn’t fund contraceptives through Medicaid programs. And even when these programs do fund reproductive health care, the copayment for services is often too expensive for many to afford. Because of these structural barriers, women of color have higher rates of unintended pregnancies, and, therefore, need more access to abortion resources than white women, but are more likely to live in areas with less access and have less financial resources to travel to seek care. A study of census information and IRS tax returns shows that unmarried Black teens who give birth reduce their probability of future employment by 47-58 percent. However, when Black women live in areas where abortion is safe and available, they are likely to see about a seven percent increase in employment opportunities. Considering Black women – and women of color in general – face more barriers to economic mobility in their lifetime than white women, abortion bans are just another barrier to closing the racial wealth gap. Without Roe v. Wade in law to ensure these services are allowed, there is a very real risk of further drastic economic disparities among women of color.

With surrounding state governments likely to implement abortion bans in the near future, Colorado is going to see an even greater influx of out-of-state people seeking reproductive services. According to the Texas Policy Evaluation Project, within the four months after Texas’s strict abortion ban was implemented in 2021, 5,500 Texans sought out-of-state abortions compared to 500 during the same timeframe in 2019. About half of those seeking out-of-state services went to Oklahoma and Kansas, which are now two of the primary states looking to rid reproductive services altogether. Colorado providers are worried flooded clinics and overworked practitioners will be left trying to deal with an increase in patients seeking reproductive health care. 

Despite Colorado’s longstanding history of being a pro-choice haven, abortion laws and restrictions are not perfect here either. According to the Guttmacher Institute, abortion is not covered by insurance policies for public employees and is only publicly funded in cases of life endangerment, rape, or incest, leaving those unable to afford abortion services potentially being subjected to forced births and additional economic barriers.

The decision to overturn Roe comes with a multitude of social and economic consequences, and though Colorado is one of the most progressive states in the country for reproductive health, there’s still more we can do to implement further protections to ensure that reproducing people have control of what happens to their bodies regardless of the color of their skin, where they were born, or how much money they make. To learn more and see what some of our partners are doing about the state of reproductive rights in the country, please check out the Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights (COLOR), Progress Now Colorado’s Keep Abortion Safe project, Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, Cobalt and the ACLU of Colorado.