Centennial State News

Heidi Ganahl, the Republican nominee for governor of Colorado, said during a weekend debate that there's a contradiction between Gov. Jared Polis' claim that he supports a woman's right to choose and the actions he took to force state employees to get vaccinated. 

Polis, a Democrat, faced off against Ganahl in a debate Sunday that was hosted by KOAA News5, Colorado Politics, The Colorado Springs Gazette and the El Pomar Foundation Forum, according to Colorado Politics. The topic, at one point, turned to vaccine mandates, according to the report. 

“I want to make sure that Colorado remains a state where the government and bureaucrats don't insert themselves into that very private and difficult conversation between a woman and her doctor,” Polis said in a video clip that Ganahl shared on Facebook.

Responding to the governor’s comments, the Republican candidate said that she would let Coloradans decide the issue at the ballot box. 

“Again, I will put that to a vote of the people of Colorado,” she said in the clip from the debate shared on Facebook. “And yes, I do think it's terrible to abort a baby in the final weeks of pregnancy," Ganahl said in the video clip she posted. "You passed a law without the will of the voters. But also, if you care so much about women's health care choices, how come you fired so many women health care workers because they didn't feel comfortable getting a vaccination during COVID?"  

Polis, who has supported vaccine mandates in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, last year prompted the Colorado Board of Health to enact a mandate for health care workers in the state, according to Littler. Last year, Brownstein reported that Polis that the governor’s efforts to streamline the enforcement of vaccine mandates would save lives.

 “Fully vaccinated Coloradans can rest assured that you are reasonably safe to live your normal pre-pandemic life as the state of Colorado along with our partners in local public health and healthcare providers will be hard at work ensuring our readiness for whatever curveballs or variants the future throws us,” Polis said in a news release in February, adding that anyone not fully vaccinated should get vaccinated for risk severe illness. 

Polis in December told Colorado Public Radio that anyone who is unvaccinated and contracts COVID-19 can only blame themselves and he said the definition of “fully vaccinated” to mean three shots, according to Politico.

According to the Mayo Clinic, some people who have been vaccinated will still get COVID-19 in what is termed a “breakthrough infection.”