A bill to fund a state program that's been credited with reducing teen pregnancies and abortions in Colorado was introduced to the House Friday.
The measure would allocate $5 million from this year’s state budget to pay for the Colorado Family Planning Initiative. It’s a program that helps low-income women access long-acting birth control at certain health clinics.
The initiative launched in 2009 with a $23 million donation, but those funds are drying up.
The state credits the program for helping to reduce teen pregnancy rates by 40 percent between 2009 and 2013. And, it’s helped 30,000 women to get intrauterine devices known as IUDs.
Some conservative lawmakers say the implants cause abortions.
State House Republican Don Coram of Montrose, who co-authored the legislation, refutes that idea.
"The copper IUD also works as a spermicide," Coram says. "If you don't have a fertilized egg it certainly is not something that's going to cause an abortion.
Coram acknowledges that this could be a divisive bill within his own party.
"Well I think there will be opposition but there are also Republican lawmakers that are supporting it," he says.
Coram has also introduced a separate bill aimed at teen pregnancy and dropout prevention.