Louisiana Has Pro-Life Ballot Victory, Colorado to Remain Late-Term Abortion Destination

For pro-life Americans in Louisiana and Colorado, the results of the 2020 election were mixed. While Louisianans were able to add the Love Life Amendment to the state constitution, Coloradans failed to limit abortions to the 22nd week of pregnancy. It shows that abortion continues to remain a divisive and contentious topic in the United States.

Democrats often call Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the United States, “super precedent.” It’s a legal term first coined during the confirmation hearing of now Chief Justice John Roberts, and essentially means that the matter is “so well settled that no one calls for them to be overruled.”

But Roe is by no means “super precedent.”

For one, it’s a terribly worded decision, so much so that even the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg agreed and discussed its issues at length in a scholarly legal article. The other problem with labeling Roe “super precedent” is that the issue of abortion still deeply divides Americans across the country.

The 2020 election is a great example, where one state voted to add a pro-life measure to the constitution and the other voted to keep abortion legal at any point during pregnancy.

In Louisiana, citizens had the opportunity to vote for the Love Life Amendment, which added a line to the Louisiana Declaration of Rights that states, “To protect human life, nothing in this constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion.” The measure passed overwhelmingly with 62.06% in favor and only 37.94% against.

Pro-life groups celebrated the measure.

“While the specter of Roe v Wade looms large over states choosing to protect life, we celebrate the pro-life win in Louisiana declaring abortion is not a right that should overshadow the right to life,” Jor-El Godsey, president of Heartbeat International, said. “This is the kind of common-sense policies that all but radical advocates for Big Abortion can support.” 

The March for Life tweeted its support, stating, “Yesterday, pro-life Louisiana voted to pass the ‘Love Life’ Amendment, ensuring there is no right to abortion in the Louisiana constitution. This landslide vote is a major #prolifewin and shows the power of the bipartisan pro-life movement in Louisiana.”

In Colorado, things went a little differently. A commonsense abortion restriction, known as Due Date Too Late or Proposition 115, went to the people and failed to gain enough votes to pass

The measure aimed to limit abortion to the first 22 weeks of pregnancy, making a provision if the mother’s life is in danger but not on the basis of rape, incest or if the baby had a prenatal diagnosis. Only 40.93% of Coloradans voted in favor, and 59.07% against.

Though there was a lot of interest and grassroots efforts behind the ballot initiative, the odds of it passing in a state with no abortion restrictions was rather slim

According to The Denver Post, the proponents only spent $505,488 in advertisements, the opposition spent nearly $9 million. The pro-abortion supporters were also able to successfully advertise this ballot initiative as a ban on all abortion and a threat to women’s health, regardless of the fact that an emergency c-section is much faster than an abortion and would be the more likely option in the event of a health emergency.

This is the fourth time in 12 years that a pro-life measure has failed to pass in the state, which is unfortunate as Colorado has become essentially a late-term abortion destination for women across the country and the world. Ironically, the public did pass Proposition 118 or the Paid Medical and Family Leave Initiative that will give employees the option to take 12 weeks of paid family leave

These mixed state results show that the abortion debate is far from over.

Photo from Shutterstock

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