Posted March 12, 2026
Disability Law Colorado (DLC) applauds the Colorado Senate for passing House Bill 26-1040, legislation that ends the forced sterilization of people with disabilities in Colorado and affirms the fundamental right to informed consent and bodily autonomy.
HB26-1040, sponsored by Representative Meg Froelich and Senator Lisa Cutter, removes the state’s authority to compel sterilization of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, a practice rooted in the discredited eugenics movement that remains legal under current Colorado law. The bill previously passed the Colorado House with bipartisan support and now heads to the governor’s desk.
“This legislation closes a troubling chapter in Colorado law,” said Jack Johnson, Public Policy Liaison for Disability Law Colorado. “For too long, people with disabilities have faced the possibility of losing control over deeply personal decisions about their own bodies. This bill ensures those decisions belong to the individual.”
“People with disabilities have spent generations fighting to be seen as whole human beings capable of making our own decisions,” said Molly Kirkham, a Colorado disability rights advocate who lives with a rare chromosomal condition. “Ending forced sterilization is about rejecting a painful history and affirming that our bodies and futures belong to us.”
The bill preserves the right of individuals to choose sterilization while ensuring the procedure cannot be forced on someone against their will.
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