We, the undersigned healthcare professionals, wish to warn Coloradoans about the hazards of Amendment 79.
Amendment 79 would become the only medical intervention that is protected in the Colorado Constitution Bill of Rights. It would ensure unrestricted, unregulated, taxpayer funded access to abortion.
If adopted, Amendment 79 eliminates parental notification prior to a minor daughter’s abortion which is currently law in Colorado. This undermines the critical relationship between a teen, her parents, and their healthcare professional. It may leave a teen feeling isolated and alone as she makes one of the most important decisions of her young life and faces potential physical and emotional complications of an abortion by herself. A girl who is pregnant after sexual abuse or violence would be able to be coerced or forced to have an abortion, with no knowledge of the parent, protecting the perpetrators and harming the girls.
Amendment 79 would prevent Coloradoans and their elected representatives in the legislature from enacting any restrictions on abortion late in pregnancy after the fetus could survive independently from her mother if born prematurely. Some of us care for babies born at the same gestational age as these aborted fetuses and can attest to their humanity – their ability to feel pain and respond to their mother’s caress, voice, and scent. We know that approximately 500 fetuses are aborted each year in Colorado after the limit of viability. Most of these abortions are performed on healthy women carrying healthy babies. This is a tragedy that will only get worse if we pass Amendment 79.
We lament the fact that hundreds of healthy women in Colorado currently undergo abortions each year on healthy fetuses late in pregnancy because they feel they have no other options. As healthcare professionals, we believe there are more compassionate ways to address the financial and social needs of these women.
We are saddened by the abortion techniques that are deployed late in pregnancy that frequently involve the systematic dismemberment of a pain-capable fetus or the fetal poisoning that can result in hours of anguishing discomfort before death. Amendment 79 would strip the fetus of all legal value and protections and prevent professional medical organizations or state government from regulating abortion methods and prohibiting especially cruel abortion procedures.
We are appalled that second and third trimester abortion clinics are not licensed, regulated or inspected in Colorado despite the high-risk late abortion procedures that they perform. We know that Colorado already provides oversight of thousands of healthcare facilities including birth centers, community clinics, rural health clinics, rehab centers, ambulatory surgical centers, free standing emergency departments, dialysis centers, acute care facilities, nursing homes, assisted living centers, mental health centers, portable X-ray services, and physical/occupational/speech therapy services. If Amendment 79 passes, the state will be unable to establish or enforce prudent health and safety standards pertaining to second and third trimester abortion clinics. Our patients’ health and lives will continue to be jeopardized.
By creating a new constitutional right to abortion, the conscience rights of physicians, nurse practitioners, and nurses will be compromised. If Amendment 79 passes, they may be threatened with termination of their employment if they don’t refer women for abortions or participate in abortions – even if it is contrary to their core beliefs and values.
As healthcare professionals who care deeply for our patients, we feel it is our moral obligation to tell the truth about Amendment 79 and its impact on our community.
By Michael J. New | October 31, 2024
Beth Carter, CNM
Martha Johnson, MN BSN RN
David Simon, MD
Karen Pennington, Dr.
David Martinez, MD
Michael Napierkowski, MD
Shannon Bean, RN
Nadine Klemm, RN
Danette Bradford, RN
Nadine Klemm, RN
Sarah Warren, MD
Rebecca Stone, FNP-BC
Kalie Kirk, DPT
Kalie Kirk, DPT
Gregory A. Miller, MD
Carolyn Shay Moore, MD
Denise Chism, NP
Kevin Muelken, MD
Aric Rastrelli, DO
Scott Deeney, MD
David Smith, MD
Wayne S. Jeffers, MD
Jean Schloss, RN/BSN-retired
Michele Chetham, MD
Fernando J. Boschini, MD
Laureen H. Gray, RN/BSN
Michelle K. Stanford, MD
Shannon Lolli, RN/BSN
Fernando Carriera, MD
Catherine J. Wheeler, MD
Anthony Barber, DO
David C. Miller, MD
David A. McClellan, MD
Linda Yeager, MD
Tarah Castleberry, DO, MPH
Robert A. Vander Griend, MD
Randall L. Jones, DO-retired
David Schall, MD, MPH, FACS
Kelly Lautzenheiser, MSN, RN, CPNP
Benjamin Sabo, DC
Jeffrey Wunder, MD
Julia B. Trevino-Emerson, MD
Cara Brown, MD, FAAFP
Marsha Hamner, MD,FACP
John W. Volk, Deacon, MD-retired
Sarah Norman, RN/BSN
Deanne Wikler, RNC-OB-E, BSN
Gary S. Jewell, MD
Mary E. Jewell, MD
Sheryl Brumley, RN/BSN
Donald Helfer, MD
Thomas Melcher, DDS, MS
Karen Landmeier, MD
Robert Domaleski, MD
John Epperly, MD
Chasity “Shea” Epperly, MD
Rebecca Stone, MS, FNP-BC
Bruce T. Gilmore, MD-retired
Patricia Sorbo, DC
Robert Cutillo, MD
Mark Carroll, MD
Dana Gamblin, DMD, MSD
Paula Suhr, RN
Susan Boackle Childress, MD
Jennifer Harr, DO
Jill Mason, MD
Monique Robles, MD, MS
Peter Zimmer, MD
Hannah Beasley, PA-C
David Simon, MD
Sarah Pederson, MD
Scott Deeney, MD
Brian Crisp, MD
Josephine “Joyce” Dennison, PA-C
Zach Englebert, DO
Tom Perille, MD
Julie Trujillo, PA-C
Robert Jotte, MD, PhD
Scott M. Sundheim, MD
Michael Klausner, MD, MS
Sonia Jotte, MD
Erin Luna, DO
Sandra Tyler, RDMS
Bruce L. Kautz, MD-retired
Karl A. Anderson, MD-retired
Jane E. Anderson, MD-retired
David P. Martinez, MD-retired
Rachel Konda-Sundheim, MD
Michelle O’Neil, RN, LPC
Laura Huene, BSN RN
Elizabeth H. Thilo, MD-retired
Mark Loury, MD
Paula Suhr, RN
Wendy J. Smith, ACNP-retired, Hematology/Oncology
Mark Young, MD
Cathy Kent, MA
Francis Joseph Morrison, MD
Nathan Scherer, DO
Zachary Engelbert, DO
Allison Christ, RN
Cora Aguilar, MD
Michele Claiborne, PharmD
Kevin Tool, MD Ob/Gyn
Audrey Tool, MD Ob/Gyn
Lisa Gesterling, MS, CNM, WHNP
Susan Gills, PhD, RDN
Cindy Amos, RN
Mark Stephens, MD
Nathanael Brady, DO
Janet Osteen, RN
Brandon Teska, DO, PhD
Gene Hagerman, PhD
Erin Carrithers, NP-c
John Stallworth, MD
Christine Stauffer, MS, NP-C
Jennisue Jessen, CPM
Jane Hoyt, RN
Maria Deszcz-Pan, Ph.D.
D Mark Warren, MD
Carissa Shea, NP
Wendy Madigosky, MD, MSPH
Mary Ann Eloe, RN
David Theis, D.O.
Michael Glugla, ANP-BC
Courtney Watts, RN
Sharon Schroeder, WHNP-BC
Lauren Hamilton, CNM
Drew Lawler, CNM, FNP
Shannon Bryant, BS
Keri Kasun, PharmD
Maria Domingue, CNM
Sarah Hodack, MD
Michael Leins, DO
Emma Contolini, RN
Kathryn Laven, BSN. RN
Dustin Beauvais, EMT
Adam Wolpert, MD
Steven Foley, MD
Katie Wilde, RN
John Brown, MD, FAAFP
Carl Malito, MD
Elizabeth Tovado, RN BSN
Paul Chetham, MD
Joel Roberts Roberts, LPC, NCC
Amber Roberts, BSN, RN
Eve Langston, MD
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