Our Commitment to Justice
COLOR has cultivated a reputation as an essential leader and partner within Colorado’s state-level policy ecosystem. We have become the go-to organization for state decision-makers regarding reproductive justice, namely reproductive health policies, abortion rights, economic inequalities, and other critical issues impacting our community.
We work to address the harmful and inequitable impacts that systemic barriers create for individuals due to their immigration status, economic situation, faith, race, gender, age, physical abilities, sexual orientation, or gender identity. In coalition with other advocates and elected officials, we work with our community to identify policy solutions that enable all of us to live safe, healthy, and self-determined lives.
Our Policy Wins
Since our founding, we have consistently stood up to defend our rights and advance reproductive justice in Colorado, and 2018 was a pivotal year. That year, we shifted from playing defense to developing a proactive strategy grounded in our community’s brilliance and political potential.
We asked: What would it look like to wield policy power intentionally?
That question gave rise to the CARE Act, our first comprehensive, values-driven policy package that envisioned health equity and reproductive freedom for all. We knew the bill wouldn’t pass right away. But we introduced it anyway, because our goal wasn’t about immediate victory; it was about planting the seeds for a future led by us, not for us.
What followed was a transformational era of policy wins, not just in response to attacks, but authored by us. From the CARE Act came momentum, frameworks, and language that shaped future victories like the Reproductive Health Equity Act (RHEA), OmniSalud, the Reproductive Health Care Program (SB9), and the Care Without Barriers legislative package. In just a few years, our boldness rewrote what’s possible in Colorado. This is what it looks like when Latinas, immigrants, young people, and LGBTQIA+ communities, who have historically been excluded, shape the future. When we’re not just centered, but leading.
2026: Blocked Harmful Policy Stigmatizing Abortion Care
- Defeated a bill that stigmatized abortion care by requiring health-care providers to discuss adoption with patients seeking abortion care (HB26-1105) and offer pregnant patients a “Do Not Abort”
2024-2025: Enshrining and Expanding Abortion Access Rights
- Co-led passage of Amendment 79, removing Colorado’s public funding ban on abortion care and enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution.
- Co-led passage of the 2025 Care Without Barriers package, including:
- SB25-129: Strengthens shield law protections for providers and patients.
- SB25-130: Establishes a state emergency care standard, regardless of ability to pay.
- SB25-183: Ensures Medicaid and state employee health insurance plans cover abortion.
2023: Protecting Access & Combatting Deception
- Led SB23-190, targeting deceptive practices by anti-abortion “Crisis Pregnancy Centers.”
- Co-led SB23-189 & SB23-188, expanding insurance coverage, provider protections, and youth access.
2022: Codifying Fundamental Reproductive Rights
- Co-led passage of HB22-1279, the Reproductive Health Equity Act (RHEA) to modernize state law and protect rights to contraception, abortion, and birth.
2026: Protect Safety of Individuals Who Are Immigrants
- Supported and passed HB26-1276, strengthening oversight within ICE jails like the GEO Detention Center in Aurora.
- Supported and passed SB26-005, creating a state legal path for people in Colorado to sue ICE officials who violate their civil rights.
2022: Cover All Coloradans
- Helped pass HB22-1289, expanding Medicaid coverage for children and pregnant people.
2021: Family Planning Access
- Passed SB21-009 & SB21-025, creating the Reproductive Health Care Program.
2020: Affordable Private Insurance Access
- Helped pass SB20-215, creating OmniSalud for low-income immigrants.
2026: Blocked Harmful Policy Attempting to Limit Gender Affirming Care
- Defeated a bill that attacks gender and belonging through attempts to limit gender affirming care by introducing long-term legal liability (HB26-1128) and felony penalties (HB26-1087) that undermine young people’s autonomy and the providers who support them, and forcing athletic associations to make inaccurate and harmful declarations about gender in kids’ sports (HB26-1083).
2026: Protections for Mobile Home Park Residents
- Supported in the passing of HB26-1224, requiring clearer notice around rent increase limits and park sales
- Supported in the passing of HB26-1145, allowing the state to require remediation of serious water quality problems and hold park owners accountable for fixing unsafe conditions.
2026: Extreme Temperatures Worker Protections
- Supported and passed HB26-1272, which strengthens Colorado’s system for tracking temperature-related injuries and offering additional support to employers and workers to prevent harm.
2019: Family Medical Leave Act
- Passed SB19-188, ensuring workers can take paid leave to care for themselves and their families.
2016: Pregnant Workers Fairness Act
- Helped pass HB16-1438, securing protections for pregnant workers in the workplace.
Latines Deserve Care Without Barriers
Latines are fighting for care without barriers: for ourselves, our families, and our communities!
From attacks on affordable health coverage programs to extreme climate conditions that threaten frontline workers to federal attempts to suppress voting access, Latine communities are being harmed by policies that threaten their access to care, dignity, and self-determination.
We know when our people are denied care or forced to work in unsafe conditions, it is not simply a policy failure; it is a barrier to dignity, to belonging, and to life.
Attacks on Affordable Health Coverage
The new Federal Budget Bill cuts over $930 billion from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, putting hundreds of thousands in Colorado at risk of losing health coverage—all to fund tax breaks for the wealthy and big corporations.
According to the 2025 Colorado Latino Policy Agenda, 34% of Latinos are enrolled in Medicaid. In the Denver Metro Area, 47% of Latinos reported that they themselves or someone in their household would not be able to afford the out-of-pocket costs of life saving medication or would begin to skip or delay wellness visits, regular check-ups, and vaccines if they lost their health insurance.
Extreme Temperatures in the Workplace
Extreme heat is another consequence of climate change affecting the Latino community, with many Latinos concentrated in labor market sectors that are exposed to extreme temperatures, including both hot and cold conditions, such as landscaping, agriculture, and construction.
A 2021 study from researchers at the University of California and Stanford University found that low-income workers experience five times as many heat-related injuries as those who are the highest earners. The overwhelming majority (87%) of Latino registered voters in Colorado support regulations to protect outdoor workers from extreme heat and cold.
During the 2026 Colorado Legislative Session, we supported and passed HB26-1272 ‘Extreme Temperatures Worker Protections, which strengthens Colorado’s system for tracking temperature-related injuries and offering additional support to employers and workers to prevent harm.
Colorado Latino Agenda
To keep the community’s voice at the center of policy and accountability, we shape our priorities through close collaboration with community members and insights from our annual Colorado Latino Policy Agenda—the largest survey of Latine voters in the state.
The Colorado Latino Agenda (CLA) is an umbrella initiative over a comprehensive set of related programs co-run by COLOR and our close partner, Voces Unidas. The CLA comprises statewide public research and advocacy initiatives that publish relevant and timely data and in-depth reports about Latinos in Colorado, utilizing the findings as an organizing and advocacy tool.
The CLA currently consists of the annual Colorado Latino Policy Agenda poll (CLPA), the biannual Colorado Latino Exit Poll (CLEP), the annual state Latino Advocacy Day and National Latino Advocacy Day (LAD). The CLA seeks to empower communities to strategically inform and align stakeholders and decision-makers around demographics, pressing issues, and policy priorities for the Latine population in Colorado.
Find Your Legislator
We make policy and advocacy approachable and relevant for Latines in Colorado, starting with helping you learn who your legislators are. Once you know, you can email, call, or message them to share how policies they vote on affect your life and your community. Legislators value hearing from their constituents!