by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
July 14, 2006
Aberdeen, South Dakota (LifeNews.com) -- Hundreds of pro-life advocates across the state of South Dakota attended rallies at the end of this week to build support for a statewide abortion ban. The ban will appear on the November ballot and state voters will likely be subjected to hundreds of thousands of dollars of advertising from abortion advocates urging them to reject it.
But at a Thursday kickoff event at a hotel in Aberdeen, more than 100 pro-life state residents turned out to show their support.
Aberdeen attorney Rory King was one of the speakers at the event, sponsored by Vote Yes For Life, which is leading the campaign to defend the ban.
King said the abortion ban was helpful to show the rest of the nation that abortion kills babies and hurts women and should be stopped.
Dr. David Wachs of Aberdeen agreed and, according to an American News report, told the audience that scientific advancement have been able to show the wonderful development of the baby before birth. While the Supreme Court ruled that it couldn't determine when life began in its 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, Wachs said there is no question about it now.
The audience also heard from three South Dakota women who had unexpected pregnancies and chose not to have abortions.
Molly Hanson, a Pierre High School graduate and a sophomore nursing student at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, told the audience that women need to be given abortion alternatives more often.
Leslie Unruh, the campaign director for Vote Yes For Life, also talked to the crowd. According to the AN report, she spoke of her own abortion and how she regrets the decision.
"I carry an empty crib in my heart," Unruh said. "Abortion affects a whole lot of people. It's not a healthy alternative for families. It wasn't a healthy choice for me."
When South Dakota lawmakers approved the abortion ban, Planned Parenthood, which runs the only abortion business in the state, could have taken the law to court as it normally does.
Instead, it decided to take the ban to the polls with the hope of defeating it and avoiding a court battle that could eventually be used to try to overturn Roe v. Wade at the Supreme Court.
If Planned Parenthood loses at the polls, the pro-abortion group can still take the abortion ban to court and file a lawsuit seeking to prevent it from being enforced.
Earlier this week, the first financial reports from groups on both sides of the abortion debate were announced.
The pro-abortion South Dakota Campaign For Healthy Families had raised $116,000 through June 28, with much of their funds coming from out of state. The group established to support the abortion ban at the November polls, South Dakotans for 1215, has raised $88,095 so far.
Unruh says she thinks state residents will support the abortion ban.
“The science shows that abortion hurts women and kills a living human life,” she said in a statement provided to LifeNews.com. “That is why the Women's Health and Human Life Protection Act was passed; why South Dakotans will vote yes on Referred Law 6.”
South Dakota lawmakers approved the abortion ban earlier this year and it would prohibit abortions in all cases unless necessary to save the life of the mother.
Related web sites:
South Dakotans for 1215 - http://www.VoteYesForLife.com
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