After a tense and at times raucous hearing, the Pueblo City Council rejected an ordinance Tuesday night to ban abortion in the city limits on a 4-3 vote, with opponents arguing it would be impractical, costly and futile to try to defend the policy against legal challenges.
“I’m pro-life but it doesn’t matter how I stand on it; it’s state law,” said council member Roger Gomez. The ordinance would have criminalized anyone who ships or receives abortion pills or abortion-related paraphernalia within the city limits, as well as providers who perform a certain type of later-stage abortion.
Tuesday’s vote was a preliminary action; if the measure had gotten enough support it would have moved forward to a public hearing and final vote later in the month.
Colorado’s Attorney General and the ACLU both said they would sue Pueblo should the measure pass. In 2022 Colorado passed the Reproductive Health Equity Act which codified abortion access into state law and banned local communities from impeding on that right.
“Local governmental entities can make no ordinances or laws that somehow restrict the right to access an abortion. Further, there are statutes that say that city councils cannot make ordinances which are in violation of state law,” said Pueblo staff attorney Harley Gifford. Gifford advised the council to vote against the ordinance, but noted that he couldn’t stop them if they did want to proceed.
“I think councils have the right to make bad policy. That's a right and I'm not going to stand in the way of that,” said Gifford.
Council member Sarah Martinez urged her colleagues to vote no, and said it especially makes no sense when Pueblo is facing a tight budget year and will need to make cuts.
“If we're already facing financial strain, why would we choose to spend even more money defending an indefensible ordinance?” Martinez asked. “Let's think about this logically, please, without letting emotion cloud our judgment. Voting against this ordinance is the right thing to do.”
In the crowded and loud council room, opponents held up signs that read “We stand with RHEA” and “Regina Stay Out Of My Vagina,” alluding to council member Regina Maestri, who introduced the ordinance.
The crowd was boisterous, both sides clapped and cheered at various points throughout the hearing. At times they also directly addressed council members and shouted out questions and comments in a breach of decorum. Council President Mark Aliff issued several warnings to be respectful and even threatened to remove the public from the chamber to ease tensions.
“I don't mind it when you clap, when you hoot and holler and stuff like that, but there's no reason to have this back and forth. There's absolutely no reason for it,” he said.
Aliff wanted the ordinance to move forward for another vote and said it was ridiculous to say he’s not going to fight for his community because somebody might sue him.
“It's not to say we approve it, and we think that this is the greatest thing since sliced bread. It's letting the community come to us in a public hearing, listen to the testimony, and then making a decision,” Aliff said. “Killing it tonight just takes away that whole process.”
Aliff also criticized Democratic state lawmakers, who hold a wide majority in the statehouse, and said he doesn’t need Denver telling him how Pueblo should be.
“We should not be governed by what the state says, by a completely uneven, unbelievable legislature… literally telling us how we have to operate in the city of Pueblo,” said Aliff. “That's not right. We ought to have autonomy to run our community. We want to run our community.”
Council member Maestri agreed.
“It's about time we fight back against the state for oppressing our community with bad irresponsible policies,” she said.
This is the latest in an ongoing effort by anti-abortion members of the city council to ban the procedure within the city. Two years ago, the council considered a measure that would have effectively banned abortions within the city limits. It was the first proposal of this kind in Colorado after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
That ban got farther along than the latest proposal. It passed an initial vote and had a full public hearing, where it was ultimately defeated.
