Kill or Drastically Amend Colorado House Bill HB26-1335

I testified at a Colorado legislative committee hearing on April 16, 2026 regarding Colorado House Bill HB26-1335 (Abortion Medication Access on College Campuses). This bill would require the 32 Colorado colleges with student health facilities to dispense abortion-inducing drugs. If a campus has a pharmacy, it must stock and dispense them. I urged a NO vote due to the terrible risks to women’s health inherent in this bill. The bill passed the House but must still go through the Senate, giving another opportunity to address concerns.

Sponsors and Democratic committee members argued that the bill implements Colorado's Amendment 79 by increasing abortion access. Amendment 79 states: “The right to abortion is hereby recognized. Government shall not deny, impede, or discriminate against the exercise of that right.” Please notice that Amendment 79 says the Government shall not impede, but no words about increasing access - revealing the sponsors’ claims to be false. Patty McKernon highlighted this inconsistency: “I hear you say we need to provide access to constitutional rights. It’s constitutional to own firearms. Given that, should we mandate putting gun stores on campuses?” (timestamp 6:29:50, tinyurl.com/hb1335testimony). Meanwhile, Democrats have authored bills this year supporting firearm restrictions under the reasoning “even if we save just one life.” Shouldn’t that logic also apply to abortion in light of the death of an 18-year-old girl following an abortion at Planned Parenthood of Ft Collins on February 6, 2025 (tinyurl.com/18yearolddeath). And that does not even address over 14,000 abortion deaths of pre-born babies annually after 2023 in Colorado.

Testimony on HB26-1335 raised serious concerns about the following five risks to women:
1. Informed consent: Nancy Eason (timestamp 5:01:20 of tinyurl.com/hb1335testimony) noted the bill does not require campus clinics to provide informed consent. A study of over 865,000 Mifepristone abortions found that 1 in 9 women experienced serious complications like hemorrhaging, sepsis, and emergency room visits within 45 days of Mifepristone (https://eppc.org/stop-harming-women/). Women should be informed of these physical risks and possible long-term emotional trauma. A Canadian study of over 1 million women found abortion associated with 2.4 times higher hospitalization rates for mental health issues, suicide attempts, or drug overdose (tinyurl.com/abortionmentaltrauma). This demands a bill amendment calling for informed consent covering physical risks, emotional trauma, and all pregnancy options (adoption, parenting, and abortion pill reversal within 72 hours of the first pill).
2. The bill has no in-person dispensing requirement: This raises concerns about coercion. Studies indicate 64% of women seeking abortions report some form of coercion, often linked to abuse or sex-trafficking (tinyurl.com/coerced64). A second amendment should require campus clinic training to detect and report coercion and trafficking.
3. No ultrasound requirement: Without ultrasounds, ectopic pregnancies (~2% of pregnancies) will go undetected. A ruptured ectopic pregnancy can cause fatal internal bleeding within hours. A third amendment should require an ultrasound prior to dispensing to confirm pregnancy, detect ectopic pregnancy, and determine gestational age (FDA recommends against medical abortions past 10 weeks).
4. No guidance on disposal of human remains: Scott Horak (timestamp 6:20:35 of tinyurl.com/hb1335testimony) testified that as a CSU night-custodian, he cleaned toilets, showers, and bathrooms after medical abortions, with remains entering the water system. A fourth amendment should require proper disposal guidance and campus clinic procedures.
5. Conscience protections: Collene Enos noted the bill lacks protections for individual healthcare workers with religious objections, though institutions are protected(timestamp 5:00:30 of tinyurl.com/hb1335testimony). A fifth amendment should provide this protection.
The tragic death of Holly Patterson is a sobering reminder that abortion drugs carry serious risks. You can read how, after taking abortion pills, she died from septic shock seven days later (tinyurl.com/holly18yrstory). The proposed amendments above are needed before forcing expanded abortion pill access on college campuses.
The best action for the bill was “Vote NO”, killing HB26-1335 - or amend it as suggested above. Instead, Democratic committee members did not address the risks and focused only on expanding abortion access. The silence about these deadly risks was deafening.
Call to action: Contact Democratic members of the Senate Education Committee before May 11 regarding HB26-1335, asking them to kill it or add these five proposed amendments. Emails: cathy.kipp.senate@coleg.gov, chris.kolker.senate@coleg.gov janice.marchman.senate@coleg.gov, dafna.michaelsonjenet.senate@coleg.gov.
Please email feedback on this article to lloydbenes50@gmail.com
Lloyd Benes is a retired engineer in Loveland, Colorado.