The Arizona governor, Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, called for an Arizona supreme court ruling to be repealed that permits enforcement of an 1864 law banning almost all abortions. Speaking at a press conference the governor said: ‘The near total civil war-era ban that continues to hang over our heads only serves to create more chaos for women and doctors in our state.’ First passed when Arizona was still a territory, the ban only permits abortions to save a patient’s life and does not make exceptions for rape or incest.
Can someone with a legal background explain to me how a law written before the state even existed is somehow considered more legitimate than current law?
It might be current law if no one changed it.
did they do something like roll all previous laws into current ones at incorporation/ statehood?
Most states just continued their territory laws into state laws. By the time that Arizona became a state, there was a well used process of territories becoming states, including an established territory legislature and executive nominated by the President.
It would usually be the task of the first legislature to change any law that needed to be changed to work with the new state constitution, but the changes would likely be minimal.