Pulitzer-prize winning journalist, Maria Hinojosa, interviewing Aurea at Raizado Festival in Aspen, CO on August 2024.
In the News
Read through articles in which Aurea or her work has appeared on from topics such as U.S. politics, reproductive justice, and more!
DENVER, Colorado — In November, voters get the chance to weigh in on whether or not they want to further protect abortion rights in the state of Colorado. Amendment 79 on the statewide ballot would codify abortion rights within the state constitution.
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"Amendment 79 ensures that enshrining access to abortion care, we are keeping that promise that in Colorado we will continue to be a safe haven for everybody in our state," said Aurea Bolaños Perea, strategic communication director for the Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights, also known as COLOR Latina.
OpEd: Protecting Reproductive Freedom
In Colorado, the injustices Latinas often face are connected. The community experiences high health inequities — including alarming rates of HIV due to government negligence — as well as barriers to information or misinformation explicitly targeting communities of color; stigma; a lack of affordable health care coverage; and a lack of access to quality education. Among our undocumented community, there are also health impacts associated with deportation and family separation, and there have been accounts of forced or coerced sterilizations.
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El evento anual ha tenido lugar desde 2007 y a lo largo de los años ha involucrado a más de 5,000 participantes. Armado con la Agenda de Política Latina, el grupo se reúne durante dos días para identificar preocupaciones y prioridades políticas y, en el tercer día, las lleva a los representantes estatales, dijo Aurea Bolaños Perea, directora estratégica de la Organización para la Oportunidad y la Justicia Reproductiva para Latinas de Colorado.
The organization she works for, Color Latina — which was born as a response to the AIDS epidemic and been defending the “reproductive rights” of the Latino community for 25 years — began working with other groups on a law to protect reproductive rights. The goal was to have a law in place before the Supreme Court issued its expected ruling on the federal right to abortion (the draft opinion was leaked in May 2022). As a result of those efforts, the Denver Capitol passed the Reproductive Health Equity Act, which recognizes the fundamental right to abortion and contraception. Colorado is also one of seven states without any term restrictions as to when a pregnancy can be terminated.
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Denver, CO - Feb. 2023: This package, designed in concert with providers, patients and community members, will go even further to protect the rights of patients and providers to receive and provide abortion and gender-affirming care, tackle misinformation in our communities, and make care more affordable for everyone.
Threats to safe and accessible reproductive health care are clear and present. This year we have the opportunity and responsibility to create a future where a person’s right to access essential and affirming reproductive healthcare is protected, no matter what.
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Washington Post: Colorado will provide free birth control to undocumented people. It’s a rare way to expand access.
July 2021: Now, with a surge in antiabortion legislation and the Supreme Court reviewing a Mississippi law that would ban almost all abortions after 15 weeks, Colorado’s law is an example of how other states across the country could expand abortion access, according to Elizabeth Nash, lead state policy analyst at the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit research center that supports abortion rights.
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