Today is March 16, 2023 and here is what you need to know:

Two bills seeking to bolster abortion rights in Colorado cleared their first hurdle Wednesday night, receiving approval from the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

If passed by the full legislature, the bills would shield abortion patients and providers from interstate investigations, and prohibit “deceptive” advertising from crisis pregnancy centers, deemed “anti-abortion clinics” by critics.

Critics of the efforts charge they make a mockery of other states’ laws on abortion, while defending crisis pregnancy centers as clinics that provide real services.

The bills are the first legislative action Colorado lawmakers have taken up on the subject since the Supreme Court overturned national abortion protections in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling last year. Two months prior to the ruling, state lawmakers enshrined abortion as a fundamental right with the Reproductive Health Equity Act.

Colorado lawmakers on Wednesday spent their afternoon working on a trio of bills tied to abortion, the Democrats’ response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year that overturned a nearly 50-year old decision legalizing abortion.

The Senate Health and Human Services Committee tackled Senate Bill 189, which would require health insurance carriers that serve large employers – those with more than 100 employees – to pay for abortion coverage without deductibles, copays or coinsurance.

Witnesses claimed the bill will help provide reproductive healthcare at a time when it is threatened nationwide, while opponents argued it would result in taxpayer funding for abortions or interfere with parental rights.

Also under the measure, health insurance for the small group and individual market would provide that coverage depending on how the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which regulates the Affordable Care Act, views those services.  

EMILY’S List, a national group that backs Democratic women candidates who support abortion rights, on Wednesday endorsed U.S. Reps. Brittany Pettersen and Yadira Caraveo in the Colorado Democrats’ bids for reelection in 2024.

The first-term Democrats represent competitive seats that could determine which party wins the House majority in next year’s election, the organization said. They’re among the 18 House incumbents EMILY’S List is backing in its initial round of endorsements.

Caraveo, a former state representative and pediatrician, defeated Republican state Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer by less than 1 percentage point last year in the state’s new 8th Congressional District, which covers parts of Adams, Weld and Larimer counties north of the Denver metro area.

National Democrats and Republicans have already pegged Caraveo’s reelection bid as one of next year’s battleground races.

Pettersen, a former state senator, won last year’s race in the open 7th Congressional District by a more comfortable margin, beating political newcomer Erik Aadland, the Republican nominee, by 15 percentage points. The district covers most of Jefferson County and all or parts of six mountain counties stretching south past Cañon City.

Neither Democratic incumbent has yet drawn a challenger.

In the most combative debate of the Denver mayor’s race yet, candidates sharply criticized their rivals’ positions on a host of issues, notably on public safety and homelessness, with Lisa Calderón and Andy Rougeot finding themselves in a testy exchange over policing.  

Calderon said Rougeot doesn’t know what he is talking about when it comes to policing.

Rougeot refused to back down.

Rougeot, the only Republican in the crowded field of mayoral aspirants, wants to add 400 police officers and “fight for Denver’s future.” Calderón insists more police officers do not lead to greater public safety, insisting the city should explore options to “avoid violent policing.”

Bills that propose overhauling the process for how Colorado disciplines its judges – including a constitutional referendum that voters would see in 2024 – were overwhelmingly approved by a state House committee on Wednesday.

The three measures – House Concurrent Resolution 23-1001, House Bill 23-1019 and House Bill 23-1205 – each unanimously passed the House Judiciary Committee, 13-0. They are now headed to that chamber’s appropriations panel before it can go to a vote of the full House.

The bills are the result of summer-long hearings by a special legislative committee formed after allegations surfaced in 2021 about judicial misconduct that went unpunished or was handled leniently.