Claire Cleveland


Reporting for Colorado Public Radio during COVID. Photo credit: Kevin Beatty
Colorado Public Radio •

As Colorado lawmakers work to expand abortion protections, pregnancy resource centers’ advertising under scrutiny

One woman, who didn’t want to use her name, visited the Alpha Center in Fort Collins years ago when she was a high school student. She had a pregnancy scare and didn’t want to tell her parents. She saw an ad in her high school newspaper for the center.

As an unemployed 17-year-old, she said she didn’t know how to go about getting a pregnancy test, let alone an abortion.

“We were handling this on our own, and that resource was just presented to us via this advertisement in the school newspaper.
KFF Health News •

Community Resurrects Colorado Birth Center Closed by Private Equity Firm

When a private equity firm closed Seasons Midwifery and Birth Center in Thornton, Colorado, in October, the state lost one of its few non-hospital birthing centers and 53 families with pregnancy due dates in November and December were left scrambling to find providers.

But then staffers and community advocacy groups stepped in to fill the void for the suburban Denver community and its patients, many of whom rely on Medicaid, the federal-state insurance program for people with low incomes. They
Colorado Public Radio •

A Colorado mother and daughter share their abortion stories, 50 years apart

Today there are parallels to their stories to what people in Colorado and across the U.S. are experiencing when they need abortion care.

'It was not right for me'

Claire Shaffer became unexpectedly pregnant in 2020. At first, she was excited, but the pregnancy exposed some issues in her relationship.

“My gut was screaming, but there was also this side of me that really wanted to have a child. And so I definitely had this internal conflict,” she said. CPR News is using her middle name to prote
Colorado Public Radio •

5 years into Colorado’s medical aid-in-dying programs, access is still an issue and researchers say educating doctors could help

Escobar met Ekdahl through the faith community, The Refuge, which she founded and worked as a pastor. Ekdahl had little money or resources, so throughout their friendship Escobar helped advocate for him to get better housing, access to better health care and navigate his complicated health situation.

So when it came time, she attended the meetings Ekdahl had with the Denver Health medical aid-in-dying team and offered financial assistance for the program because he couldn’t afford the $800 cost
Colorado Public Radio •

‘I want something to be proud of’: On the road to recovery, he reconnected with his family and now aims for more

Bontrager joined the program after being arrested for breaking and entering in Fort Collins last June. He was sleeping in an abandoned frat house.

“Oh, it was so embarrassing,” he recalled. “I wouldn't be sleeping in a frat house if I wasn't, you know, on drugs or in a dire situation.”

He’d been drinking and using drugs since college at that point. He grew up in Limon, which he said was boring as a teenager, and was in trouble for shoplifting and vandalism in high school.

In 2008 when he went
Colorado Public Radio •

Abortion Providers In Colorado Prepare For Out-Of-State Patients After Texas Abortion Ban Is Passed

Abortion providers in Colorado are anticipating an influx of people from Texas seeking abortion care after a new law went into effect on Wednesday. The Texas law bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy and allows private citizens to sue both providers and others who help women receive abortion care, such as rideshare drivers.

Most women don't know they're pregnant until much later than six weeks after conception.

“It has been a very sad week for providers and healthcare specialists and cert
Colorado Public Radio •

A Hundred Years After Irish Miners Lived And Died In Leadville, A Colorado Historian Is Bringing Their Stories To Life

“I couldn't believe that all of these people were just buried without markers. I mean they were given little wooden markers at the time,” said Jim Walsh, a historian and researcher at University of Colorado Denver. “But it really just grabbed me and stayed with me.”

He first saw the cemetery in 2003 when he was working on his doctoral thesis. He had decided to focus on the Irish of Colorado.

“And I remember even saying to myself that day that I was going to make this part of my life's work,” h
Colorado Public Radio •

Colorado ‘COVID Long Haulers’ Suffer Coronavirus Symptoms Weeks, Or Even Months, Later

In the early hours of an April morning, at her home in Erie, Malea Anderson woke up with what felt like an explosion of ice water up her spine and into her head. She had a massive headache and tried to get out of bed to go to the bathroom, but her limbs wouldn’t cooperate. She feared she was having a stroke.

Her partner, Randy, took her to the emergency room. The doctor suspected she had COVID-19, but she couldn’t get a test. At the hospital, the 53-year-old had a brain scan that came back norm