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Every US resident should have access to a basic level of care that includes the prevention of disease, health promotion and education, primary care (including prenatal and reproductive health), acute care, long-term care, and mental health care. Every US resident should have access to affordable, quality in- and out-patient behavioral health care, including needed medications and supportive service that is integrated with, and achieves parity with, physical health care. (2024-2026 LWVUS Impact on Issues, p. 157)


As public health crises increasingly reveal, a health program should protect the health of its most vulnerable populations, urban and rural, in order to protect the health of everyone. (2024-2026 LWVUS Impact on Issues, p. 157)

LWVUS believes that access to health care includes the following: preventive care, primary care, maternal and child health care, emergency care, catastrophic care, nursing home care, and mental health care, as well as access to substance abuse programs, health and sex education programs, and nutrition programs. (2024-2026 LWVUS Impact on Issues, p. 170)

In 2025, LWVCO supported a measure that was signed into law that codified gender-affirming health care treatments in statute and prohibited health benefit plans from denying or limiting medically necessary gender-affirming health care as determined and prescribed by a physical or behavioral health-care provider. (2025-2026 LWVCO Positions for Action, p. 112)

The League of Women Voters Colorado opposes this measure because:

Families, with the doctors and medical professionals they trust, should have the freedom to decide what health care is right for their child. This ban takes that choice away and puts the government in the middle of private family decisions. We trust families to make private medical decisions for their children without government interference.

The measure’s defined terms are vague and lead to unintended consequences for young people. For example, this measure could keep minors from receiving life-saving treatment for cervical or testicular cancers.

The measure distracts from real priorities like keeping kids healthy and safe while undermining Colorado’s law that already protects access to necessary medical care.

The measure undermines medical best practices that are supported by every major American medical association and proven to improve health outcomes and reduce suicide risk.