In a six-to-two vote at the Phoenix City Council yesterday, a resolution was passed that would give greater priority to actual law enforcement emergencies in 9-1-1 calls rather than enforcing either the 1901 or recently passed abortion ban.
In announcing her support for the resolution, Mayor Kate Gallego said:
“We are making an important decision about how we are prioritizing resources today. We are sending a message that we are not going to invest resources investigating or arresting doctors, nurses, or pharmacists. We want to be a city that makes it easier for women and all our residents to get good health care and we want to support and encourage people to go into the health care professions…Like many Phoenicians and Arizonans, I wholeheartedly disagree with the Supreme Court’s decision with Dobbs and those state laws…We have a huge amount of challenges before our city. This says that our focus is on issues such as gun crime and not on arresting doctors, nurses, and pharmacists.”
Later, Mayor Gallego posted on social media:
The people of Phoenix share a core value – the right to make their own personal decisions. Today, the Phoenix City Council and I honored that by passing a resolution declaring opposition to the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson criminalizing abortion. (1/3)
— Mayor Kate Gallego (@MayorGallego) October 12, 2022
The City's legal team agrees that #Phoenix is well within its bounds, and has a right to take action. I stand with my fellow councilmembers who support the constitutional rights of pregnant residents, including access to reproductive health care. (3/3)
— Mayor Kate Gallego (@MayorGallego) October 12, 2022
One member of the City Council, Sal DiCiccio conveyed reservations that this resolution would allow late-term abortions to become unchecked while many speakers, according to reporting from ABC 15 News relayed that this measure does not go far enough in guaranteeing abortion rights in the fifth largest city in the country.
Mayor Gallego is right. Phoenix Law Enforcement should not become like the “The Eyes” from The Handmaid’s Tale, spying and prosecuting women and their healthcare providers for simply exercising their right to reproductive freedom.
Councilmember DiCiccio’s concern about late-term abortions is a bogus assertion. The only reason the great majority of late-term abortions occur (and it is only one percent of all pregnancy terminations) is that the mother’s life is in danger or the child has a severe deformity that will prevent survival shortly after birth.
What sane person would be against that?
The Phoenix City Council made the right decision in passing the resolution to deprioritize abortion prosecutions. It is not the first city to pass a measure like this and it probably will not be the last.
It is better to spend precious resources going after real criminals for real crimes.
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Pennsylvania doctors and nurses are campaigning for Democrats on the ballot to prevent anti-abortion laws. Arizona medical practitioners should do that here!
I testified at that hearing and the opposition was a church in Glendale (note not Phoenix) and a religious group called Stop Abortion Now. They mostly read bible verses and preached what they thought gods word was. Normal churches need to step up.
“They mostly read bible verses and preached what they thought gods word was.”
For centuries the Christians have been misspelling the name of their sacred religious tract. The correct spelling is “Buy Bull”. Which they do with astonishing frequency. When questioned about their sacred tract the inevitable answer is “That’s just a parable!” Oh well, some people just don’t have the wisdom to accept that they’ve been conned.