With the House expected to spend long hours this week working on the 2025-26 budget, members wrapped up their work on Sunday on four measures dealing with abortion and transgender issues, one of which would penalize “deadnaming” and “misgendering.” 

The same four bills kept lawmakers at the Capitol into Friday evening.

Senate Bill 183 would conform state statutes to the voters’ decision last November to enshrine the right to an abortion into the state Constitution. The Amendment 79 initiative also allows for state funding of abortions for Medicaid clients and state employees.

As was the case on Friday, the debate on Sunday was intense, with Republicans trying to kill the bill by delaying it until July 4, after the session is over.

During Friday’s debate, House Majority Leader Rep. Monica Duran, D-Wheat Ridge, invoked House Rule 14, putting in place a two-hour limit on debate.

On Sunday, she turned to House Rule 16, which ends debate with a majority vote of the House and immediately moves any measure to the final vote.

The bill passed on a vote of 40-21, with one Democrat, Rep. Bob Marshall, D-Highlands Ranch, voting against the bill with Republicans.

SB 183 was not amended in its trip through the House and now goes to the governor for signing.

The House then moved on to House Bill 1309, which codifies “gender-affirming care” in statute and prohibits health insurance providers from denying or limiting such care, as prescribed by a physical or behavioral healthcare provider.

“Gender-affirming care” includes social, psychological or medical interventions for transgender children and adults, such as hormone therapy and surgical procedures.

HB 1309 passed on a 40-20 party-line vote with five excused. It now heads to the Senate.

The next two bills were voted on without debate following another use of House Rule 16 by Duran.

That led Republicans to ask for the first bill, House Bill 1312, to be read at length, the only tactic they had. Once the reading was over, under House Rule 16, the bill went to an immediate vote. 

House Bill 1312 seeks to penalize “deadnaming” and “misgendering” as discriminatory actions and to mandate the courts to include such claims in determining the allocation of parenting time in custody cases.

The 36-20 vote once again found Marshall siding with Republicans, with nine excused. HB 1312 now heads to the Senate.

The final bill, Senate Bill 129, deals with legal protections for abortion and gender transition services. 

As it applies to abortion drugs, the measure allows, at the practitioner’s request, the label for mifepristone, misoprostol and their generic alternatives to display only the name of the prescribing health care practice, instead of the individual practitioner. It also prevents Colorado residents and businesses from complying with out-of-state civil, criminal, or regulatory inquiries about individuals or entities involved in what sponsors described as “legally protected health-care activity.”

Duran again invoked House Rule 16; Rep. Ron Weinberg, R-Loveland, asked that the bill be read at length, and at the conclusion it went to a vote without debate.

The bill passed on a 39-20 vote with Marshall voting “no,” along with the Republicans. It now returns to the Senate for review of House amendments.

Republicans later complained in a statement that Democrats were “completely silencing debate and immediately calling final passage votes on two major bills without allowing any discussion on third reading.”

House Minority Leader Rep. Rose Pugliese, R-Colorado Springs, added that “Coloradans deserve better than rushed debate and silenced voices. Pushing policies while shutting down the voices of those who are raising valid concerns about the direction of our state is not why we are here.”

“We were elected to represent our constituents, not rubber-stamp an agenda without serious debate,” she said. 

On Tuesday, the House will begin its work on the 2025-26 state budget.