Testimonies in Support of HB23-188: Protections for Accessing Reproductive and Gender Affirming Health Care
3/22/23
As more states are moving to ban access to and criminalize gender affirming care and reproductive health care including abortion, advocates in Colorado are working hard to protect provision and utilization of these services by Coloradans and individuals who come to our state to access these services. The bill includes protections for health care providers, patients, and people assisting patients. We are grateful for Cobalt, COLOR, Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, and New Era Colorado for leading the charge on the Safe Access to Protected Health Care Package of 3 bills, and glad to contribute by coordinating supportive testimony from two LGBTQ+ representatives: Ruby Lopez (she/her) our QTPOC Program & Spanish Access Coordinator and community members Lindsey Loberg (they/them) (see below).
Learn about the details of this bill on our 2023 Legislative Action webpage.
Ruby Lopez (she/her):
Chair Gonzales, members of the Judiciary committee, thank you for the opportunity to share my testimony in support of SB 23-188,
The Protections For Accessing Reproductive Health Care bill. My name is Ruby Sofia Lopez, I use she/her pronouns, and I am the Queer and Transgender People of Color Program Coordinator for Out Boulder County.
Out Boulder County brings together the LGBTQ community by providing services, support, advocacy and connection for LGBTQ people.
In the wake of Roe v Wade being overturned, several states in our great nation have decided to pass a series of regressive laws harming women and transgender people through the denial of life-saving healthcare. Out Boulder County is in favor of SB 23-188 because it ensures that all women and transgender people in Colorado, and other states, have secure access to reproductive and gender affirming healthcare. As a state that is known as a regional and national leader in modeling what good, life affirming, governance can look like, it is the moral imperative of the state and people of Colorado to be the safe haven that America deserves. It is especially important that access to these specific types of healthcare extends to people outside of Colorado, because so many of our neighboring states have, or will soon pass, laws that infringe on the bodily autonomy and rights of women and transgender people. As Coloradoans and Americans, I know we all love our freedom. SB 23-188 will ensure the freedom to access life-saving healthcare is not infringed upon in Colorado.
My colleagues and I have been receiving phone calls and emails over the past several months from people from out of state, asking for help in accessing gender-affirming resources. We do our best to point them in the right direction, but we are limited in what we can do and it doesn’t feel like enough. As a transgender woman myself, if I had to live in a state with a government that goes out of its way to restrict my access to healthcare, I would certainly not consider that a free state! Government has no place in making decisions for our bodies, and to deny healthcare to those that need it, is nothing less than state sanctioned violence. Today I ask you committee members, do what is right, vote for freedom, vote for life, good health, and happiness. Vote YES for SB 23-188. Thank you.
Lindsey Loberg (they/them):
I'm a transmasculine person living in Colorado. I want to encourage your support of this shield legislation to protect patients, providers, and assisters. Nearby states are legislating to make it incredibly difficult for their residents to get necessary medical, centrally gender-affirming care and abortions. Obviously, this puts their residents at risk, and it's putting Coloradans at risk, too. We need you to secure our right to meet our own needs, to help our friends, family, and neighbors (from here and from out-of-state) to meet their needs, and to protect our access to care by protecting our providers.
I'm here to tell you that it's difficult and barriered enough to get gender affirming care (even in Colorado). In order to get gender affirming care, the majority of transgender people have to to navigate familial, social, financial, and employment pressures, discrimination, a pandemic, their own medical histories and decisions, cumbersome medical systems, systemic and medical transphobia (e.g. institutionally imposed barriers to care, limited research and accessible information about our care). I'm a relatively resourced person, and I have a lot of privilege to leverage. Still, because of such pressures and barriers, it took me about 4 years to access the scope of gender affirming medical care I need. Even now, after I've initially accessed the care I need, it's still too difficult and cumbersome to get medical care. For example, it's typical that I have to make multiple calls or visits to get my testosterone prescription filled.
Despite all that, gender affirming care has made my life better and more full. I feel more present, calmer, happier, more at home. I'm better able to show up for myself and others. It's more possible for me to imagine a future I want for myself. Everyone deserves those things. I'm appreciative to the state of Colorado for remaining a place where this can be accessible for me, even while that's not the case for others (including people living in some nearby states). I am deeply grateful to the providers and to the other trans people who have helped me get what I need. I want a world where everyone gets what they need, and I want to maintain my own right to help other people, particularly other trans people, get the care they need without threat of out-of-state prosecution.
While other states are legislating austerity, we need you to put in place some protections that will allow us and our providers to keep the right to support ourselves and one another. I want our neighbors to have access to health care, and I want to protect providers in order to secure good health care for Coloradans. The more this out-of-state prosecution threat creeps on Colorado's providers, the less candidly doctors can communicate information and provide care, and the more the overall quality of our medical care diminishes. It's already hard enough for trans people to get medical care, and we need this legislation.