Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego decried the Arizona Supreme Court’s ruling to enforce an 1864 law criminalizing nearly all abortions and said Phoenix Police, by direction of city council, will continue to deprioritize calls related to abortion law violations.
“When Roe (v. Wade) was overturned, this council voted to work with our police chief to deprioritize any calls related to abortion law violations. That policy still applies,” Gallego said at the start of Tuesday’s city council meeting, several hours after the court’s ruling.
Before the council meeting, Gallego also appeared with members of the Arizona Democratic Party outside the State Capitol to rebuke the court’s decision. Gallego called the ruling to enforce the 1864 law, which bans all abortions except to protect the life of the mother, “dangerous” and “dark,” written before an understanding of modern medicine.
