Colorado Passes Nation’s First Abortion Reform Law
The movement to legalize abortion began in the mid-1960s. Colorado on this day became the first state to liberalize its law, permitting abortion in the case of rape, incest, or other specified conditions.
In California, Governor Ronald Reagan signed an abortion reform law on June 15, 1967. New York passed an even more liberal abortion reform law, which went into effect on July 1, 1970.
The state-by-state liberalization of existing criminal abortion laws was finally cut short by the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, on January 22, 1973, establishing a constitutional right to abortion.
The battle to preserve Roe and the constitutional right to an abortion continues to the present, with the Right to Life movement enacting restrictive abortion laws in numerous states.
Learn more at an abortion reform timeline: http://www.abortioncarenetwork.org/term-papers/chronology-of-abortion-in-us
Learn about abortion in America before Roe: Linda Greenhouse and Riva Siegel, Before Roe v. Wade: Voices that Shaped the Abortion Debate Before the Supreme Court’s Ruling (2010)
Read: David Garrow, Liberty and Sexuality: The Right to Privacy and the Making of Roe v. Wade (1998)
Watch a video of a 2004 pro-choice march: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAy_xrDUFzY