By Tiffani Lennon
The month of June has seen an extraordinary number of powerful bills signed into law within our state of Colorado, but an equally concerning list of legal decisions with grave impact for people experiencing poverty across the country.
The name of our organization is a pragmatic one; our work at Colorado Center on Law and Policy engages the legal and policy realms simultaneously. Alongside so many partner organizations and communities, we work to secure greater access to healthy food, to safe homes, to income that enables Coloradans to live with dignity, and to health care.
The attack last week on access to reproductive healthcare by our nation’s highest court was an attack on healthcare, period. The decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization impacts everyone, but is a particularly cruel blow to those experiencing poverty, disproportionately impacting people of color. For many, this Supreme Court decision creates deep uncertainty and fear, and loss — for the rights that were so swiftly taken away in states across the U.S., as well as for the rights that so easily could be taken away in the future using the same ideologically-driven arguments applied in this case.
Though the state of Colorado has established the right for women to access abortion, a right not diminished by the Dobbs decision, there are other aspects of reproductive health that have required CCLP advocacy at the state level.
For example, Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF), the state agency that administers Medicaid, fails to provide early pregnancy loss (miscarriage) medication, Mifepristone, for Medicaid patients. Mifepristone is a safe, effective, and commonly used treatment for miscarriage. The Food and Drug Administration first approved Mifepristone for use in 2000, and it is an authorized medication under Medicaid law, yet the right to access this medication has been denied. CCLP, alongside Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains (PPRM) is advocating to allow use of Mifepristone as a miscarriage medication for Medicaid patients and we are currently working with the Governor’s office to make this happen.
Our work, like our organization’s name, is pragmatic. We seek solutions, and we lift up the voices and ideas of others to envision a future that is better than how others have left our past. Though certain trends today are cause for concern, it remains our job to see things not merely as they are, but as they can be — and then work like hell to make change happen.
Tiffani Lennon is Executive Director, Colorado Center on Law and Policy