Kudos to Yuma politician for taking a stand
Voting against party line isn’t easy, but voting one’s conscience is critical
It takes courage to stand apart from a crowd of your peers and make an independent decision.
In politics, especially when it comes to controversial issues, it’s easy to hold the party line, to vote for yay or nay on the issue because the party says so, but is it the right thing to do? Not always.
Ideally, our politicians would vote based on their constituents’ feedback – and not the party line or their own personal considerations.
Frankly, we miss the days of politicians like John Mccain, who voted because it was the right thing to do, not the popular thing.
But thankfully, that spirit still pops up from time to time – and in the Arizona Legislature, we saw it with Yuma’s Rep. Tim Dunn.
On April 24, Dunn voted in the Arizona House of Representatives to repeal the 1864 law that outlawed abortions except to save the life of the mother.
According to Capitol Media Services, the vote came after heated opposition from most Republicans.
Dunn is a Republican. But he was one of three Republicans who voted to repeal the 1864 law, joining Matt Gress and Justin Wilmeth of Phoenix.
In a post on his social media account, Dunn noted, “Many of you know that Eileen and I are deeply prolife. It’s always been a core value for us.”
Dunn noted, “The recent decision by the Arizona Supreme Court has upheld a law first created in 1864. This law is not perfect. Unfortunately, protecting women in life-threatening situations and accounting for cases of rape and incest were not considered at the time of its passing.
“I am voting today to repeal that law. By so doing the Arizona law will revert to exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother, and outright ban all abortions after 15 weeks. Should the pre-roe law remain in effect, I firmly believe more lives will be lost over time. The public backlash would result in codifying disturbing and unlimited abortions in the Arizona Constitution, which is something that I cannot allow to happen. Make no mistake, my vote today is the most pro-life vote I can possibly make, at a time when my colleagues and I are placed in a position to make such a difficult judgment call,” the post stated.
Dunn clearly falls into the pro-life camp, but when faced with the 1864 law, he made a decision to go against his party, and vote for the good of the order – and that takes tremendous courage.
Whether or not you agree with abortion or not, there is a point to be made about making sure our laws are current, applying to our state as it stands today, and not aligned with 1864.
Ideally, we would like to see the abortion issue removed from politicians’ hands entirely, and put into the hands of voters – who should be able to make a clear statement about what they want on Election Day.
But for now, Dunn took a stand – and it’s a courageous move for which he should be applauded.