DENVER — Organizers behind a proposed ballot measure to ban late term abortions in Colorado can begin collecting signatures.
The Colorado Secretary of State's office announced Thursday it approved the format for the petition.
Proposed Initiative 120 would ban abortions statewide for a fetus over 22 weeks gestation.
Organizers have until March 4 to gather more than 124,000 signatures required to put the issue on the 2020 ballot.
The Elections Division has approved the petition format for Proposed Initiative 120: Prohibition of Late Term Abortions for circulation. The proponents will need to collect 124,632 signatures by 3/4/20 to put the issue on the 2020 ballot. https://t.co/4gcd8j5LsA #copolitics
— Colorado Sec. of State (@COSecofState) September 19, 2019
Colorado's NARAL Pro-Choice chapter released a statement on the announcement, saying:
“Colorado voters have repeatedly defeated efforts to ban abortion and restrict our Constitutional rights, and we are confident they will do so again. Coloradans strongly believe that decisions on abortion belong between the patient and their doctor, not with politicians.
And this effort is purely political - there are no medical reasons for an abortion ban at any point in a pregnancy. All abortion bans are arbitrary and unnecessary, whether at 6 weeks in Alabama or 22 weeks in Colorado.
An abortion ban is an abortion ban. Colorado voters have consistently protected reproductive rights both in law and at the ballot box for more than 50 years.”
