Court Orders Release of Larimer Autopsy Report in Transparency Dispute

By: Cory Gaines | Commentary, Complete Colorado

Abortion is obviously a polarizing topic.  While this column touches on the subject, it’s not the actual focus.  Rather, it’s about something I hope we can all agree on: transparency. Government officials should not be hiding information from us based on what they think is good for us to know, or for some ideological reason; a lesson the Larimer County Coroner recently learned the hard way.

In February 2025 a young woman died due to complications from a late term abortion.  According to reports in various pro-life media outlets (regular progressive Colorado media, of course, have run from this story like the plague), along with the autopsy report that followed, Planned Parenthood in Fort Collins performed the procedure and noted something was wrong while the young woman was in the recovery room. They sent her to the hospital via ambulance, where she later died.

Larimer County Coroner Stephen Hanks performed an autopsy on the young woman. Later that year (November of 2025), Troy Newman, president of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, filed a Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) request for the autopsy report. The coroner’s office went back and forth with Mr. Newman regarding what they thought was appropriate to release and what wasn’t, ultimately handing over a redacted copy.  Mr. Newman disagreed with the redactions and took the coroner to court.

It took until April of this year to get a judgment, but a Larimer district court judge (rightly) sided with Mr. Newman, ordering the coroner’s office to release an unredacted copy.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT COMPLETE COLORADO

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