2026 Election

The Catholic Bishops' of Colorado had the following to say on these ballot measures:


Proposition 133 
Penalties for Human Trafficking of a Minor

Strengthens laws against the sex trafficking of children, including changing the crime from a class 2 felony to a class 1 felony with a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole or release, with an exception for victims of sex trafficking who were coerced into participating in the trafficking act. Human trafficking violates the sanctity, dignity and fundamental rights of the human person. Colorado is ranked 10th in the nation for the highest sex trafficking reports. Colorado is home to both Interstate 70 and Interstate 25, and children are often trafficked north and south along those routes. It is imperative that Coloradans strengthen laws that reject the modern slavery of sex trafficking of children.

Proposition 134 
Male and Female Participation in School Sports

Requires all interscholastic and intermural athletic programs to be expressly designated based on biological sex as either for men, women or coeducational (co-ed). School and athletic organization policies that undermine the biological reality of a person’s body as male or female deny human dignity and are abusive to minors. Proposition 134 affirms the “unique and immutable biological differences” between men and women from birth and that those differences become more pronounced as children age and reach puberty. Policies that allow biological men to participate in women’s sports promote the unfair treatment of women and pose potentially dangerous and inappropriate situations for young women, including sharing bathrooms and locker rooms with biological men. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 was a much-needed landmark to establish equal educational opportunities for women. Proposition 134 keeps in continuity with Title IX.

Proposition 135 
Prohibit Certain Surgeries on Minors

Recognizes that minors lack the maturity to make “permanent, life-altering medical decisions” and that medical interventions and surgery intended to alter a child’s biological sex often result in severe, irreversible consequences and even sterility. Proposition 135 also prohibits medical providers from knowingly performing, prescribing or administering a medical intervention or surgery on a minor with the intent to alter their biological sex and prohibits state funding from being used for such medical interventions or surgeries. According to the Declaration of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith “Dignitas Infinita” on Human Dignity (2024), “any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church recognizes that “the human body shares in the dignity of ‘the image of God’” (CCC 364), including the body’s unique biological sex. The fundamental order of the human person is the unity of body and soul and attempts to alter biological sex are contrary to God’s divine plan for that person. This is why the Church emphasizes the need to respect the natural order of the human person, especially of children whose physical and mental well-being will be seriously harmed by permanent and life-altering medical interventions and surgeries. Furthermore, according to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in its “Doctrinal Note on the Moral Limits to Technological Manipulation of the Human Body” (March 2023), gender reassignment interventions are not licit and violate the Ethical and Religious Directives (ERD) for Catholic Health Care Services. Currently, 25 hospitals in Colorado perform sex-alteration surgeries on children and 64 prescribe hormone therapy on children for so-called “gender-affirming care,” according to data provided by Do No Harm organization of physicians (www.donoharmmedicine.org).