2025 Colorado Legislative Session: Top 15 Priority Bills
- Colorado Catholic Conference
- May 9
- 9 min read
The 75th General Assembly of the Colorado legislature adjourned the 2025 legislative session on Wednesday, May 7.
Lawmakers introduced 731 bills this session, 24 more than last year. To put it in context, lawmakers are allowed to introduce five bills each year. With 100 state legislators, that should equal 500 bills. Given the five-bill rule, leadership is allowing more bills to be introduced late into session than is democratically prudent or procedurally appropriate.
Furthermore, the majority party also invoked rules 14 and 16 near the end of session, which prevented the minority party from filibustering and ensured bill passage. This was particularly unsettling for the transgender bills, for which, for the first time in many years, if ever, leadership evoked rule 16 in the House and took away any debate opportunity for the Republican caucus to argue against the bill, HB25-1312 “Legal Protections for Transgender Individuals,” upon its third reading and final passage. This was an undemocratic end to the last few weeks of session.
The Colorado Catholic Conference took a position on 53 bills this session — 13 more than last year. The CCC was in a support position on 34 bills, an oppose position on 11 bills, an amend position on two bills and a monitor position on six bills. Here is the breakdown of CCC involvement:
CCC supported that passed: 12
CCC supported that were defeated: 22
CCC opposed that passed: 10
CCC opposed that were defeated: 1
The legislature’s priorities this session included restorative justice, reproductive rights (abortion and transgender) and gun control. The priorities that impacted the Church the most included sanctity of life, religious liberty, marriage and family, economic justice, immigration and restorative justice.
This year, Colorado faced a $1.2 billion shortfall due to overspending. This was primarily caused by the state’s poor use of one-time COVID-19 relief funding for unsustainable programs. Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) places a cap on the budget by limiting it to a formula based on population growth plus inflation, but Democrat leadership blamed TABOR for not growing at the speed of the economy or the costs of Medicaid. This resulted in HJR25-1023 “Require the General Assembly TABOR Constitutionality Lawsuit,” for the General Assembly to overturn TABOR through the courts — that bill was laid over daily for the rest of the legislative session. Without TABOR, there would be little accountability on how the state can spend taxpayer dollars. Coloradans have repeatedly rejected any legislative attempt to undermine TABOR, including 2023 Proposition HH, which was defeated.
The Joint Budget Committee’s agreement on the budget was to postpone serious consideration of the deficit until 2026. Instead, there was a record number of “orbital bills” around the budget (around 80), directing where more general revenue money should be spent. This will likely result in a bigger TABOR attack in this November’s election.
The Colorado General Assembly considered several controversial bills this session, including a bill on immigration, SB25-276 “Protect Civil Rights Immigration Status.” SB25-276 creates state-sanctioned places of “sanctuary” from federal law enforcement for migrants in public buildings, including public childcare centers, public schools, local education providers, public institutions of higher education, public healthcare facilities and publicly supported libraries. It also limited the ability of local law enforcement to comply with federal immigration enforcement operations. This bill, along with the City of Denver’s policies, has resulted in a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice on May 2 against the City of Denver and the State of Colorado for violating the U.S. Constitution’s supremacy clause of the federal government on issues concerning immigration. While the Catholic Church supports the migrant community in many ways, including shelter, food, assistance in applying for visas and naturalization and work opportunities, the Catholic Conference remained in a monitor position on SB25-276.
CO Catholic Conference TOP 15 Bills this Session
CCC Support Positions
Colorado is a national leader in putting thousands of women at risk each year because of unregulated abortion clinics. HB25-1252 would have changed that by simply ensuring abortion clinics are regulated at the same level as other comparable surgical institutions, such as ambulatory surgical centers and hospitals, because emergency care may be needed. Birthing centers are currently held to a higher regulatory threshold than abortion clinics but carry many of the same risks; yet HB25-1252 was defeated in the House Health Committee on a party-line vote.
Twenty states, including Colorado, have passed laws banning so-called conversion therapy for minors. These laws define conversion therapy so broadly that it could encompass any form of therapy that fails to encourage and unquestioningly affirm a child’s same-sex attraction or transgender identification. HB25-1251 would have protected parental rights in Colorado by prohibiting any person or entity from procuring, soliciting, arranging or performing a surgical procedure or providing other medical or mental health services to a minor without written or verbal consent from a parent of the minor (17 years and younger). HB25-1251 was defeated in the House Health Committee on a party-line vote.
HB25-1255 would have protected the right of institutions such as Catholic hospitals and individual healthcare providers to exercise their conscience against certain procedures that violate the Ethical and Religious Directives of a faith-based healthcare agency or the individual First Amendment rights of conscience and expression of each healthcare provider — this would have included abortion and/or transgender therapies or procedures. HB25-1255 was defeated in the House Health Committee on a party-line vote.
Since Colorado passed its Safe Haven Law in 2000, 96 babies have been saved. However, because there is a 72-hour time frame limit, 58 babies in Colorado were illegally abandoned and found deceased in dumpsters and elsewhere in the last 5 years. HB25-1257 would have extended the timeframe to 30 days and allowed for anonymity, so no identifying information on the mother would be collected. HB25-1257 had no cost to the state; an authorized facility that installed a newborn safety device would have been fully responsible for the cost of the installation and maintenance. Despite this common sense, lifesaving, cost-efficient policy, HB25-1257 was defeated in the House Health Committee on a party-line vote.
HB25-1253 Youth Health Protection Act – DEFEATED
HB25-1253 would have banned puberty blockers and so-called “gender affirming care.” The medical community currently understands gender transition medication and procedures to be experimental, and their safety and efficacy have not yet been established. Therefore, it is within the State of Colorado’s interest to prohibit certain medical treatments related to so-called “gender affirming care” that data show is harmful to youth. The FDA has not approved puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones to treat gender dysphoria, and internationally, places such as the UK are limiting access to hormone therapy. Yet, HB25-1253 was defeated in the House Health Committee on a party-line vote.
SB25-118 requires health insurance plans to cover up to three prenatal doctor visits. This is an important bill to move Colorado away from prioritizing abortion and ensure the state prioritizes prenatal care for mothers who choose life for their preborn children. This bill was worked on by the Colorado Catholic Conference and sponsored by Democratic leadership.
In 2024, Colorado enacted HB24-1280, which created a grant program ($2.5 million) for organizations that serve migrants within one year of their arrival in the United States. This year’s HB25-1244 extends the arrival eligibility to migrants within the first three years of their arrival in the United States. This assists the work and resources of many organizations that serve migrants in Colorado, including Catholic Charities and other ministries in all three dioceses.
CCC Oppose Positions
While 62 percent of Coloradans voted for Amendment 79 in November, removing the prohibition on public funding for abortion, the electorate was informed by the legislative blue book and media that Amendment 79 would not cost the state money. Four months later, the state legislature introduced SB25-183 with a 1.5-million-dollar fiscal note in a year when Colorado is in a 1-billion-dollar deficit. Recent data show a conservative cost estimate of state-funded abortion is actually between $2 million and $8.5 million per year in taxpayer money. In an abhorrent effort to offset the costs, the legislative fiscal note stated that the state will save money because more babies will be aborted, and the cost of abortion is cheaper than the cost of labor and delivery. The bill also drastically underestimates the cost of abortion, which contributed to the lower fiscal note.
HB25-1312 codifies discrimination against any institution, faith-based or private, and individual with a different belief about human sexuality. It forces them to conform to government-mandated beliefs about “sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression” and avoid intentionally “misgendering” or “deadnaming” (using biological pronouns and birthname) under threat of criminal and financial penalties. In its introduced version, HB25-1312 also made a parent’s position on their child’s trans-identity an element for custody decisions and established Colorado as a “transgender sanctuary state.” Fortunately, the bill’s parental rights violations and sanctuary state provisions were removed in Senate amendments, although they are still practically enforced by legal precedent. Still, Colorado’s Antidiscrimination Act (CADA) remains a massive violation of First Amendment freedoms of speech and conscience and public outcry against HB25-1312 remains enormous. Senators received over 18,000 emails advocating against the bill. Nearly 700 Coloradans went to the Senate hearing to testify against HB25-1312. The Senate Judiciary Committee silenced hundreds of voices by limiting testimony. The bill was passed out of the legislature and is expected to be signed by Gov. Polis.
HB25-129 is both a shield and a sword to those who seek, provide or facilitate abortion in Colorado. Section 5 establishes a private right of action, allowing individuals to sue businesses in civil court if those businesses are considered to violate Colorado’s laws regarding access to abortion. This bill makes Colorado a “sanctuary state” for abortion access.
The 2023 bill SB23-189 expanded the definition of reproductive healthcare to include “Gender-Affirming Care” and required large employer insurance plans, individual/small group plans and state-funded plans to provide coverage for “gender affirming care.” The impact of SB23-189 is amplified by HB25-1309, which lists a host of very expensive treatments and procedures — against the religious beliefs of faith-based institutions and individuals — as required to be covered by private health insurance providers if they are deemed “medically necessary” by a physical or behavioral health provider. These treatments and procedures include hormone therapy, genital reconstruction, breast augmentation and facial reconstruction.
SB25-014 Protecting the Freedom to Marry – ENACTED
Whereas Amendment J on the 2024 ballot removed the constitutional definition of marriage as between “one man and one woman,” SB25-014 removes the definition of marriage from Colorado state statute. SB25-014 passed the legislature on a party-line vote.
SJR25-004 designates the anniversary of Roe v. Wade (1973) as “Reproductive Rights and Justice Day” and celebrates Colorado’s 2022 Reproductive Health Equity Act (RHEA), which codified a “right to abortion” for all 40 weeks of pregnancy and the 2024 Amendment 79, which established a constitutional right to abortion and removed the constitutional prohibition against taxpayer-funded abortion, paving the way for the abortion financing bill SB25-183. SJR25-004 passed the legislature on a party-line vote.
Even though IVF can help create new life, multiple factors make it contrary to the natural law and purpose of marriage, rendering it morally wrong and a mortal sin. IVF often includes the death or freezing of embryonic children, which is a profound violation of their dignity. It also separates conception from the spouses’ sexual union, instead creating children through technological manipulation. However, this does not mean that life created from IVF loses value, and any children born from IVF are made in the image of God and have inherent dignity. Because HB25-1259 limits adult donor-created persons’ access to the donor-identifying information of the person whose genetic material created them, it violates the dignity of the person created from IVF, who has a right to know their mother and father. HB25-1259 also includes the “right to destroy embryos, and the right to donate embryos to research” and makes Colorado a “sanctuary state” for IVF treatment. This is a violation of the sanctity of life. HB25-1259 passed the legislature on a party-line vote.
SB25-063 would require all school districts and charter schools to publish a policy that outlines a process for removing materials from their library; this process must follow Colorado’s anti-discrimination law, which includes protected classes of “sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.” SB25-063 requires that any request to remove a book be made public, and the person filing the request have a student at that particular school. Additionally, SB25-063 protects a school staff member or librarian from discipline or termination for refusing to remove a library resource before it has been reviewed. SB25-063 is intended to restrict parents’ ability to limit their children’s exposure to potentially illicit or inappropriate material in schools and libraries, ultimately violating parental rights. SB25-063 passed the legislature on a party-line vote.
A full list of Colorado Catholic Conference bills and positions may be found here: https://cocatholic.org/legislative-work/
