DENVER — Gov. Jared Polis, who has made a habit of governing one way in Colorado, but presenting himself a different way to national media is at it again, most recently telling CNN that “abortion is bad,” and that he and fellow Democrats are working to find ways to stop it.
Polis made his remarks recently in an interview on CNN with reporter Dana Bash when she asked him how he reaches people who say his marriage is not legitimate because he is a gay man married to another man.
“You start with common ground,” Polis said. “Something like abortion and choice. Democrats don’t believe abortion is good. We think it’s bad.”
He went on to say that he thinks abortion should be minimized, yet the quote comes in stark opposition to the slew of bills Polis continues to sign into law since taking office, making Colorado one of the country’s most lenient states when it comes to limits on abortion.
Senate Bill 21-142 removed a requirement that abortions funded by the state for things such as rape and incest be done in a licensed healthcare facility and by a licensed physician. Those can now be performed outside of a licensed healthcare facility so long as it is performed by anyone licensed by the state to do so.
In 2022, Polis signed House Bill 22-1279 into law, guaranteeing access to abortion at any stage of pregnancy, declaring that “a fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus does not have independent or derivative rights under the laws of the state.”
And during the 2023 legislative session, he signed three more bills concerning abortion:
- Senate Bill 23-188 makes Colorado a safe haven for people who come here seeking an abortion because their home state is more restrictive. Under that law, Colorado courts or judicial officers can not issue subpoenas for other states against Colorado facilities for providing the services.
- Senate Bill 23-189 requires large employer health plans to provide coverage for an abortion without deductibles, copayments, or coinsurance, essentially forcing other policyholders to subsidize those abortions.
- Senate Bill 23-190 subjects healthcare providers to professional discipline for providing, prescribing, administering, or to attempting a medication abortion reversal unless medical boards determine such procedures to be valid medical treatment.
SB 190, however, has yet to be implemented because the state medical boards have put themselves at odds with pro-abortion legislative Democrats behind the bill by issuing a draft rule saying they will review abortion reversal treatments on a case-by-case basis.
The results of those bills led to the highest number of abortions performed in Colorado since 1985: 14,154 to be exact, according to a 9News report. Colorado had a record high number of 17,601 abortions in 1980 but steadily dropped to 4,215 by 2000. Those numbers fluctuated between 9,869 and 11,350 between 2005 and 2018, when Polis took office, and they have steadily increased since.
The report also says approximately 29 percent were performed on non-residents, compared to 12 percent in 2018.
Dan Caplis, on his talk show for 630 KHOW said it is hard to imagine anyone being more supportive of abortion on demand than Polis.
“So now he comes out finally and speaks the truth — that abortion is bad,” Caplis said, adding he has come out now with this stance now because Polis is positioning himself to run for President. “I think we need to put this up on billboards and say, ‘Thank you Governor Polis with some information about how to support the pro-life movement.’”
Polis’ change of tune on abortion is not the first time he has given national media fodder to believe he is a moderate Democrat. In fact, he has tried to paint himself as a libertarian for a national audience.
Jon Caldara, President of the Independence Institute* has written twice about Polis’ flip-flop of principles when faced with local media versus national media.
“Jared Polis is no libertarian,” Caldara said in a June 2022 opinion piece and a subsequent piece after Polis did an interview with Reason magazine, saying Polis’s actions are not those of “a guy who wants to leave you alone. Regretfully, Polis is the most destructive governor in Colorado’s history when it comes to personal and economic freedom.”
Former Colorado Republican Chairman Dick Wadhams agreed with Caldara, saying this is all to set the stage for his future political ambitions.
“Polis plays this game with the national media because he harbors presidential ambitions, and he does not want to be seen as a doctrinaire Democrat,” Wadhams said. “He wants to be seen as a problem solver, someone who can bring people together, so he becomes a whole different person when he talks to national media.”
Wadhams said he’s getting away with it because the national media wants to believe it.
“They are lapping it up,” Wadhams said, “because they want to believe there is a Democrat national figure like that.”
*Independence Institute is the publisher of Complete Colorado.
