A Fort Collins woman will undergo a surgery to prevent pregnancy. A Thornton couple has decided to embrace male birth control through a vasectomy. A mother in Evergreen plans to stock up on morning-after pills. And a transgender man in Colorado Springs worries about his access to testosterone. Although voters enshrined abortion access in the state’s constitution last fall, some Coloradans still feel uneasy about the permanency of reproductive health care and gender-affirming care under President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration. With the Republican leader set to take office for the second time on Monday, several Front Range residents told The Denver Post that they feared potential new constraints — like the specter of a federal abortion ban that would override protections in the state. So they’re preemptively taking matters into their own hands. Trump comes into office after his stance on abortion has shifted over the years. He took credit for the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade — the U.S. Supreme Court decision that had legalized abortion nationwide in 1973 — which was felled by five conservative justices in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Trump nominated three of them. Since then, he’s proclaimed abortion to be an issue for states to sort out individually. And in October, Trump said he would veto a federal abortion ban — although he could face pressure from some GOP lawmakers, including U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, who are in favor of moving forward with national restrictions. Trump’s promises haven’t reassured many Coloradans. “Our freedoms are never guaranteed,” said Alison Friedman Phillips, the director of programs, policy and advocacy at the Women’s Foundation of Colorado, which presses for gender, racial and economic equity. “In the changing federal context, we can understand why women are uncertain whether those rights will be protected.” Michaela Ruppert, 32, is one of those women concerned about their reproductive rights. She’s known for a long time that she doesn’t want children. “The potential of being forced to carry a child — that just is terrifying to me,” said Ruppert, who lives in Fort Collins. “That should not at all be something that the government should be deciding.” So after conferring with a doctor, Ruppert plans to take a step beyond her current birth control method, an IUD inserted in the uterus, by scheduling a salpingectomy later this year. That is a surgery to remove her fallopian tubes. For her, it’s a solution to her pregnancy fears. Reproductive health care “feels like it still could be taken away from me, even in Colorado,” Ruppert said. “Knowing that there’s this procedure that I could get done does make me feel better.” After the Nov. 5 election, Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains saw a 119% increase in appointments for intrauterine devices, or IUDs, and a 54% increase for birth control arm implants — two of the most effective forms of contraception, president and CEO Adrienne Mansanares said. “What we saw was a community-wide response to the election and a desire to ensure that people can plan their own pregnancies,” she added. But that doesn’t mean Colorado residents don’t intend to start families. At Planned Parenthood, the demand for family planning services continues to jump statewide after falling during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, Mansanares said. However, amid anxieties about federal action, opponents of abortion rights aren’t convinced that Trump will make the issue a priority. “The Trump administration has said time and time again throughout their campaign cycle that the Dobbs decision returns the question of abortion access back to the states,” said Brittany Vessely, the executive director of the Colorado Catholic Conference. “So there are no immediate plans to do anything to restrict abortion access on the federal level.” Instead, she said, “there’s a lot of hyperbolic scare tactics going on.” Vasectomies and morning-after pills But women who have more questions than answers about the future of reproductive health care are making decisions now for themselves and their families. Julia Marvin, 38, worries that contraception could be what’s limited next under Trump, now that abortion access has been curtailed in certain states after the fall of Roe v. Wade. “What happens if different birth control methods are taken away?” she said. Marvin and her 36-year-old husband have already made the decision against having kids, with climate change and other environmental factors dissuading him in particular. So after talking about it for over a year, she said, they plan to schedule him for a vasectomy, a sterilization procedure for men. “Especially as we were getting closer to the election … we were starting to worry more about a Trump presidency,” said Marvin, a Thornton resident and a former state representative. “That sort of solidified things for us.” In this May 22, 2018, file photo, Then-President Donald Trump looks out at the audience during a speech at the Susan B. Anthony List 11th Annual Campaign for Life Gala at the National Building Museum in Washington on May 22, 2018. The Trump administration had just announced that it would bar taxpayer-funded family planning clinics from referring women for abortions. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Associated Press) Katy Moses, 49, plans to stock up on morning-after pills before Inauguration Day after discussing it with friends in a group text. Moses had three kids before undergoing a tubal ligation, which is referred to colloquially as “getting your tubes tied.” But now, she’s fretting about safeguards for her teenage daughter. At age 19, Moses had an abortion as a college freshman in Kansas, with the support of her then-boyfriend. “We were able to be safe. We were able to be dealt with in a medical facility that was clean,” said Moses, who lives in Evergreen. However, with the ongoing politicization of women’s health issues, “it just feels like we’ve just stalled,” Moses said. At Planned Parenthood, Mansanares says its inventory is fully stocked, and a patient can walk out of its pharmacies with a year’s supply of birth control. But she recommends speaking with a medical provider instead of amassing medication. Larger concerns about health care access Jamie Traeger, a transgender man, is concerned about future access to gender-affirming care, such as hormones and permanent sterilization, and the level of coverage by insurance. Traeger, 35, lives in Colorado Springs, and his husband is a military officer. With Trump’s second term approaching, Traeger says some of his friends in the trans community are considering hysterectomies, which would surgically remove their uteruses. The reason: Sterilization is a more foolproof way to avoid pregnancy than IUDs or tubal ligation, Traeger said. “For many of us, pregnancy is something that does not align with our goals for our body, our goals for our families,” he said. “There’s always a real urgency about permanent birth control.” He had his own hysterectomy done in 2016 — although TRICARE, the military health care program, can make coverage of gender-affirming surgeries difficult, Traeger said. Every week, he injects himself with testosterone as part of his hormone replacement therapy. If he was forced to stop, he said, then “that would be really dangerous for my health” by potentially affecting his bones. For now, “the uncertainty of it all is just — it’s mind boggling,” Traeger said. So he and his husband are trying to stay in Colorado for its health care options, instead of pursuing other career opportunities around the country. Supporters of Coloradans for Protecting Reproductive Freedom gather outside the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office to deliver boxes filled with more than 200,000 voter signatures to put an abortion rights constitutional amendment on Colorado’s November ballot on April 18, 2024, in Denver. The measure, Amendment 79, went on to pass with nearly 62% support from voters. (Photo By Kathryn Scott/Special to The Denver Post) Some women, including those who plan to have children, remain uneasy about the prospect of a federal abortion ban. Stephanie Lang, 36, wants a child. But before she and her husband, Andrew, make that choice, “we’re going to have to see what the political climate is,” she said. “We’re gonna have to see: Do our Colorado rights protect us in all these different situations?” For her, it’s a heavier decision to make under Trump than it would have been under Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate who lost the presidential election. When Lang decides to get pregnant, she aims to use genetic testing. If the results detect potential disabilities, then she intends to abort the pregnancy. “You have no idea how much something like that impacts you for the rest of your life — not just in terms of all the extra labor you have to do, but all the finances as well,” said Lang, who lives in Denver. “It’s not just black and white when it comes to delivering a child.” Being “in this weird limbo place” Emily Burke-Weiss, 38, is trying to have another baby. She and her husband, who live in Denver, are already parenting a 2-year-old son. Last November, at nine weeks pregnant, tragedy struck: Burke-Weiss found out during a scan that her fetus no longer had a heartbeat. Experiencing what’s known as a “missed miscarriage,” she either could wait to expel it naturally or could get an abortion. Related Articles Politics | What to watch at Trump’s inauguration: Big Tech CEOs, Carrie Underwood and foreign leaders Politics | It’s inauguration eve and Trump is ready to revel in his return to power Politics | Colorado Springs finally approved recreational marijuana. Could the new market be snuffed out before it starts? Politics | With a US ban on TikTok hours away, Trump says he ‘most likely’ will grant an extension Politics | Trump’s family circle has a different look as he returns to the White House Burke-Weiss opted to undergo a dilation and curettage, which is a surgical abortion. “I needed all the care that is banned in so many places,” she said. If she ever found herself in the same position again, Burke-Weiss depicted herself as nervous to self-administer abortion pills, preferring the experienced hands of a doctor. Considering the possibility of a nationwide abortion ban, Burke-Weiss said: “I would be terrified if I was in this situation and lived in a country where I didn’t have access to it.” For now, she’s waiting to see what happens over the next four years. “I was pregnant when Roe was overturned, and I now feel like I’m trying to get pregnant in a time when we still don’t know the clear path of reproductive health,” Burke-Weiss said. “That puts me in this weird limbo place.” Stay up-to-date with Colorado Politics by signing up for our weekly newsletter, The Spot.