DENVER (LifeSiteNews) — Colorado Democrat Gov. Jared Polis has signed a rare pro-life measure into law, expanding the window in which mothers can surrender their newborns to safe havens from 72 hours after birth to 30 days.

The straightforward HB26-1024 expands the window during which women who decide they are unwilling or unable to raise a child can legally turn him or her over to a firefighter or hospital staffer. It takes effect August 12.

Colorado Safe Haven for Newborns, the organization that backed the change, credits the original 2000 law with saving 99 newborns, but suggests the original window was too narrow to prevent an additional 41 abandonment cases and 34 abandonment-related infant deaths. It notes that while every state has a safe haven law, Colorado was one of just six with such a narrow window.

“The first few days after childbirth are not calm or clear,” argued the bill’s lead sponsor, Republican state Rep. Rebecca Keltie. “They are intense. A mother’s body is flooded with hormones and often distressed.”

Like in Wisconsin, whose pro-abortion Democrat Gov. Tony Evers signed a similar law in March, the development is a rare pro-life exception for Colorado under Polis, which currently allows abortion for effectively any reason, empowering notorious (since-retired) late-term abortionist Warren Hern to set up shop in Boulder.

Colorado is currently under federal investigation for suspicion of coercing health providers into covering abortions, and in January was forced to pay $5.6 million to a pro-life medical clinic it targeted for offering abortion pill reversal.

The Colorado Safe Haven for Newborns website offers more information on Colorado’s safe haven rules, and where babies can be safely surrendered, plus a confidential crisis hotline for women in need.