A Fort Collins legislator’s bipartisan bill that aims to further protect biological data as technology progresses has been signed into law.

Protect Privacy of Biological Data, HB24-1058, was signed into law Wednesday by Colorado Gov. Jared Polis after passing unanimously in the Colorado Senate in March.

The bipartisan bill concerns the protection of privacy regarding biological data and will expand the scope of the Colorado Privacy Act.

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In 2021, the General Assembly enacted Senate Bill 21-190, which established the Colorado Privacy Act Colorado Consumer Protection Act. That act “protects the privacy of individuals’ personal data by establishing certain requirements for entities that process personal data. The privacy act also describes certain rights that consumers may exercise regarding the processing of their personal data” and “includes additional protections for sensitive data.”

Now, the definition sensitive data is expanded to include biological data. Biological data is defined in the bill as “data generated by the technological processing, measurement, or analysis of an individual’s biological, genetic, biochemical, physiological, or neural properties, compositions, or activities or of an individual’s body or bodily functions, which data is used or intended to be used, singly or in combination with other personal data, for identification purposes. Biological data includes neural data, which is information that is generated by the measurement of the activity of an individual’s central or peripheral nervous systems and that can be processed by or with the assistance of a device.”

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Fort Collins Democratic Rep. Cathy Kipp said that after she learned more from neurologists at the Neuro Rights Foundation, she wanted to utilize the Colorado Privacy Act to cover growing neurotechnology as well.

“There are about 30 companies out there that are selling the information and that might not sound too scary, but as we learn more about people through reading brain waves, it would be appropriate to add this information into the Colorado Privacy Act,” Kipp said.

Kipp said “this particular bill is the first-in-the-nation” and the only other “country to make legal amendments to protect neuro-biological data is Chile.”

“In 10 years from now, there will be even more neurotechnology, so this is a frontier on saving privacy when that happens,” she said.

More Terrain Hoppers are coming to Colorado Springs-area trails.

Cheyenne Mountain State Park recently announced acquiring two of the electric vehicles appearing like small ATVs and “designed to carry mobility challenged people at walking speed across a variety of surfaces,” according to a news release.

Starting Memorial Day weekend, the park will make the Terrain Hoppers available for online reservation — similar to El Paso County’s Trailability Program.

“We are excited to get our guests out on trails that they’ve been unable to hike due to mobility limitations,” Cheyenne Mountain State Park Manager Jason Hagan said in the release.

The intent has been the same for El Paso County, which this month opened online reservations for summer and early fall tours on trails around Bear Creek and Fountain Creek nature centers. This will mark the second full summer of the Trailability Program. The tours have been alongside trained volunteers, as will be the case at Cheyenne Mountain State Park.

A similar program has run at Staunton State Park since 2017. Rather than Terrain Hoppers, the park near Conifer has offered Trackchairs, which navigate terrain with tank-like wheels.

Last fall, Colorado Springs’ city parks department announced acquiring two Trackchairs. In February, the department posted a seasonal position, “Trackchair program administrator,” who “will be part of the process to finalize and launch the program with an anticipated start date in late spring,” city spokesperson Cassie Melvin told The Gazette.

Melvin added: “In conjunction with parks staff, (the administrator) will also be responsible for assessing trail accessibility and working to upgrade trails to accommodate the Trackchairs.”

Such work has been underway in the city’s Bear Creek Canyon Park, said to entail about a mile of widened trail construction and realignment. The work was identified collaboratively with El Paso County, which manages neighboring Bear Creek Regional Park and has expressed interest in guiding Terrain Hoppers up to Gold Camp Road.

City officials have also floated Red Rock Canyon Open Space as another possible place for guided Trackchairs.

This past Friday, thousands of pro-life advocates descended on the state Capitol in Denver for the first-ever Colorado March for Life. Their joyful smiles, voices and witness filled me with hope Colorado is taking the necessary steps toward transforming from being a leader for abortion, to a leader for life.  

Pro-abortion advocates view Colorado as the “leader of abortion” with good reason. In 2022, Colorado codified the “right” to abortion at any stage of pregnancy. More recently, Colorado’s partisan state leaders officially designated Jan. 22 as “Roe v. Wade” day. As if that weren’t enough, the state also passed a law attempting to limit the advertising of pro-life organizations, which daily save lives and successfully help women overcome homelessness, addiction, abuse and so much more.

At the very least, Colorado law still prohibits public funding for abortions. Tragically, however, radical pro-abortion advocates are seeking to enshrine Initiative 89 in the Colorado constitution. If passed, the amendment would allow the public funding of abortions by cementing an absolute “right” to abortion in the constitution. This would allow abortions at any point in pregnancy without limits or safety measures to protect women, without oversight, regulation or even the credentialing of provider, and without any protections for parental rights — all egregious measures no other country in the world permits.

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As a board-certified OB/GYN and former abortionist, I am disturbed by these efforts to exploit women and children for profit.  

As part of my OB-GYN residency, I was trained in abortion procedures. Yet a traumatic experience performing an abortion opened my eyes to the reality abortion painfully takes a human life — in violation of the Hippocratic Oath I’d taken to do no harm. Moreover, in all the years I’ve spent working in medicine, I have never had a patient who didn’t regret her abortion. Indeed, many experience intense grief and trauma (My experience corroborates studies showing more than 60% of post-abortive women reported high levels of pressure or coercion into unwanted abortions).

Sadly, Colorado’s current abortion law and attacks on pregnancy resource centers, including women’s right to choose safe, bioidentical progesterone to reverse chemical abortions, obscures the reality of what abortion entails, how it harms women and, ultimately, how pregnancy resource centers can help. But Coloradans can take a step to right our course by learning the details of this proposed initiative and by taking a stand against turning our state into an abortion destination that then abandons women to their home states to deal with complications or follow-up care. 

Thankfully, the American Association of Pro-Life (AAPLOG) OB-GYNs, of which I am a board member, is working to bring more light to life-affirming policies and support for Colorado women. Just after the state March for Life, we launched the first-ever state AAPLOG chapter here in Colorado. We will be a resource for legislators and medical professionals, while offering encouragement and support to all medical professionals seeking to respect their Hippocratic Oath, protect life and honor women.  

This is the type of advocacy Colorado’s women and children deserve — not the deadly lies of the abortion industry.  

Just a few days ago,thousands of pro-life advocates thronged Denver’s streets to testify to this truth. Their cheerful witness and advocacy offered a source of hope and light to a state sadly taken over by abortion extremism. 

They also served as a consoling reminder to Colorado’s post-abortive moms, and any mom struggling with a difficult decision, that the pro-life movement is ready to walk with them and love them every step of the way. 

Catherine J. Wheeler, M.D., is a board-certified OB/GYN who practiced for 24 years in Utah and now resides in Colorado.