Tucson Standard

Mayor Reina Romero and the Tucson City Council passed a resolution to they say will “protect reproductive and abortion rights” during a June 7 council meeting, taking a stance against SB1164, which criminalizes those who help with abortions in Arizona.

According to a story by KGUN9, The resolution directs police not to make physical arrests under SB1164 or another anti-abortion law should the U.S. Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade.

"I am not going to sit and wait as our constitutional rights are stripped away," Romero said during the meeting. “In the absence of Congressional action to enshrine Roe v. Wade into federal law, it is up to local governments to stand up to protect bodily autonomy and the rights of pregnant persons from repressive state laws.”

The resolution was developed with input from local law enforcement officials, and went into effect immediately, the story said.

HB1164, which was signed into law by Gov. Doug Ducey in March, states that if Roe v. Wade is overturned, then “a person who provides, supplies or administers to a pregnant woman, or procures such woman to take any medicine, drugs or substance, or uses or employs any instrument or other means whatever, with intent thereby to procure the miscarriage of such woman, unless it is necessary to save her life, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not less than two years nor more than five years.”

According to a story by KOLD, Romero pointed out that the state would revert to a law from 1901 should Roe be negated, and she believes it would be a major setback for women.

"These are medical decisions that people have the right to make a choice over,” she said.“For the last 50 years, the Supreme Court has affirmed and reaffirmed that particular right.

“We needed to make sure the mayor and council from the city of Tucson make it absolutely clear our stance regarding the fundamental rights to abortion,” Romero added. “I wanted it not to be just a statement, but also that it had teeth.”

Instead of arrests, the measure would give the Tucson police chief power to change the department’s general orders to stop arrests from being made. Instead, abortion complaints would be forwarded to the Arizona Department of Health Services or Pima County Attorney’s Office to be investigated. Romero added that Police Chief Chad Kasmar was part of the discussion before the resolution.

“This is something that I’m not surprising our police chief with,” Romero said. “He is supportive and is within his right as well as the right of the mayor and council to change the general orders that police officers follow.”

Romero also said she wasn’t sure how state officials would react to the measure, and she also said that should Roe v. Wade remain intact, the resolution could be amended.

“I don’t know how the state is going to respond to us,” Romero said. “As per their usual‚ they might try to and do something that is not in their purview to do but I’m pretty sure they will try.”