We are urgently seeking 500 new Life Defenders (monthly supporters) before the end of October to help save babies from abortion 365 days a year. Your first gift as a Life Defender today will be DOUBLED. Click here to make your monthly commitment.
Tennessee House rep removed from his party for opposing abortion
Rep. John DeBerry Jr. had always represented his Memphis state House district in Tennessee as a Democrat. This year, however, he will be running as an Independent due to his former party’s decision to remove him over his pro-life beliefs.
In April, the Tennessee Democratic Party’s executive committee voted 41-18 to remove DeBerry from the ballot for the August primary, a potential blow to DeBerry’s chance to run as an Independent or as a Republican, since the vote took place after the filing deadline had passed.
Ernest Brooks, one of the committee members who voted against DeBerry’s expulsion, told the Tennesseean, “Historically, many of the constituents that live in Rep. DeBerry’s district have possibly been disenfranchised in some ways in the past, and I thought that the executive committee vote the other day disenfranchised his voters once again. We’ve taken that power from them. If they wanted to reelect him, they cannot.”
Bryan Carson, an executive committee member from Memphis, told the Tennesseean that he believes DeBerry does not exemplify “basic Democratic principles,” and that DeBerry’s constituents do not realize what he stands for. “The people who’ve challenged him, they haven’t been able to raise the money to have a decent campaign to let them know what he’s actually doing in Nashville,” Carson said.
Though the deadline had passed for DeBerry to be listed on the ballot as an Independent, legislators passed a measure allowing him to be listed on the ballot anyway, avoiding a write-in campaign.
DeBerry, an ordained minister with the Church of Christ, told the Catholic News Agency, “My work in Nashville as a legislator is nothing more than an extension of my work as a child of God, as a Christian,” he said, adding that he has not hidden his pro-life principles. “So for them to say that folks don’t know where I stand, they actually said that the people in my district don’t have sense enough to elect their representative.”
According to CNA, DeBerry “was one of more than 100 Democrats at the federal, state, and local levels who recently asked the platform committee of the Democratic National Convention to moderate the abortion language in the party’s platform.”
Live Action News is pro-life news and commentary from a pro-life perspective.
Contact editor@liveaction.org for questions, corrections, or if you are seeking permission to reprint any Live Action News content.
Guest Articles: To submit a guest article to Live Action News, email editor@liveaction.org with an attached Word document of 800-1000 words. Please also attach any photos relevant to your submission if applicable. If your submission is accepted for publication, you will be notified within three weeks. Guest articles are not compensated (see our Open License Agreement). Thank you for your interest in Live Action News!
Dear Reader,
Every day in America, more than 2,800 preborn babies lose their lives to abortion.
That number should break our hearts and move us to action.
Ending this tragedy requires daily commitment from people like you who refuse to stay silent.
Millions read Live Action News each month — imagine the impact if each of us took a stand for life 365 days a year.
Right now, we’re urgently seeking 500 new Life Defenders (monthly donors) to join us before the end of October. And thanks to a generous $250,000 matching grant, your first monthly gift will be DOUBLED to help save lives and build a culture that protects the preborn.
Will you become one of the 500 today? Click here now to become a Live Action Life Defender and have your first gift doubled.
Together, we can end abortion and create a future where every child is cherished and every mother is supported.
Newsbreak
