The medical licensing board asserts itself (and a lawsuit probably didn't hurt either) about abortion reversal. Get to know the people who make important decisions behind the scenes.
Abortion Reversal likely won’t be automatically “unprofessional”
I can't help but smell a bit of fear over a court challenge (in addition to a licensing board standing up to the Democrats running this state and telling them to not make licensing a political football).
I am not sure if you remember, but one of the laws the Assembly passed and Gov Polis signed, SB190, this last Assembly term would have stepped in on providers by making the prescription of medicine to try and reverse a pharmaceutical abortion "unprofessional conduct".
In case you need the context, state licensing boards take complaints on professionals and then decide whether or not that individual should continue to be licensed in Colorado. The idea is that those working in a field are the best to judge their peers on their decisions. For example, if you're an engineer and design the climate-control system in a school and the school says it isn't working and you screwed up, they can complain to the state board of engineering. You (the engineer) get a hearing at that board where other engineers review your design and decide whether or not you met the standard of care or whether you screwed up. They can then discipline you or pull your license.
Saying that prescribing or helping with abortion reversal is unprofessional conduct ties the hands of the state board of medicine. It makes prescribing said medicine AUTOMATICALLY something you can be disciplined for; the board has no discretion in the matter.
Except that, at Gov Polis' instigation the Senate amended the bill and required the state boards for doctors and nurses to make up rules about this before the law could go into effect.
At its passage too, there was a lawsuit brought by a clinic.
Apparently (see the article below) the state boards have pushed back on the Democrats running this state and held their power to decide to themselves. See the attached screenshot for more context.
Unmentioned by the board (and tangentially reference in the article) is the lawsuit about this.
I can't help but see some behind the scenes wrangling here. Perhaps someone (Gov Polis I'm looking in your direction given your past intrusions) has their hand on the scales and is trying to blunt or forestall YET ANOTHER lawsuit that might end up reminding the Democrats running this state exactly where the line is on freedom vs. government intervention to accomplish Progressive ends.
https://coloradosun.com/2023/07/21/abortion-pill-reversal-colorado-medical-board/
Yet another in the series of posts about "get to know the people who fill the offices you usually don't think about but which can have a big effect on your life".
Polis recently made an appointment to the State Planning and Budget Office, the well-connected, and well-known politico Mark Ferrandino (no, I didn't know him either).
Why does this matter? Why should you care?
I'll give you a couple hints in screenshot form (from the article below in no particular order).
Get to know who's making the decisions that greatly affect your life.
p.s. the article below is chockablock with references to this gentleman being the "first gay [fill in the blank]". While I'm glad he's a trailblazer, I long for a future when we can just consider people's policy choices instead of making those second to their being able to claim a "first something".
https://www.westword.com/news/mark-ferrandino-tapped-to-lead-state-planning-and-budget-office-17297016