DENVER — There are three days left in this year’s legislative session and lawmakers still have dozens of bills to consider.

But, in reality, these last three days are about one bill, a proposal to legalize same-sex civil unions; and its ultimate fate will put a defining capstone on how the electorate views the legislature — specifically, Republicans — heading into the fall election season.

If House Republicans allow the bill to clear the final three legislative hurdles — a vote before the House Appropriations Committee and then second- and third-reading votes before the full House — the story will be that of a shift in the GOP, of a growing number of conservatives recognizing the public’s wide acceptance of granting equal legal rights to gay and lesbian couples.

DENVER — Just as the so-called “War on Women” was fading from the nation’s headlines, Colorado lawmakers brought the battle over reproductive rights back to the floor of the state Senate Friday.

Lawmakers spoke passionately for and against Senate Memorial 3, a GOP-sponsored measure to memorialize Congress to enact the so-called “Blunt Amendment”, an effort to vastly expand conscience exemptions to the Obama administration’s new birth control coverage rule.

After three hours of debate, the Senate’s Democratic majority ensured that the measure died by a vote of 20-15 that went right down party lines.

A bill to cut the estate tax for farmers and ranchers passed the Appropriations Committee today on a 9 to 4 vote.