The Abstinence Clearinghouse headed by Leslee Unruh and located in South Dakota is the prime sponsor.  Now, Dr. Allen Unruh is now the head of a new anti-choice organization which is lobbying for the abortion ban.

How the ban got on the ballot is described below.  But how it is the forefront of the theocratic anti-abortion movement comes right from the Virginia center of Jerry Falwell.

Falwell tried to "deliver" his followers for the South Dakota ban on September 14, 2006, writing in a weekly newsletter of the  Moral Majority Coalition and The Liberty Alliance.

The pro-life movement in South Dakota needs your help ....

.... I hope you will step in.  I have told Dr. (Allen) Unruh and his team that I will do my best to deliver thousands of people who will financially help to win this historic battle ....

Dr. Unruh and I believe that if ever there were a time when Christians need to invest in a pro-life effort, the time is now and the place is South Dakota.  If the state wins this battle, other states could follow South Dakota's lead in the future, also determining to outlaw abortion.

I am urging my friends across the country to give generously to this vital campaign.

What happens in South Dakota will literally affect the future of America.

This ultra-reactionary abortion ban will be on the ballot in November because pro-choice forces are fighting back with great foresight and courage. (Talk about action: they took it!) The ban was passed by the legislature last winter, and signed by Gov. Mike Rounds in March.  

The bill is known as HB 1215 - you can read it in full here .  

Leslee Unruh and others who support it said that wanted to see it tested before a U.S. Supreme Court bench with two new Bush-appointed justices who are expected to support the anti-abortion cause -- Justice Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts.  They promised South Dakota that anti-abortion allies would help foot the bill of taking a case to the Supreme Court.

Pro-choice activists refused to take the bait and decided to go a different route.  Instead, they swing into action and mounted a campaign to put the issue on the ballot in November, collecting thousands of signatures in a matter of weeks.  This also put the ban on hold.  

South Dakota voters can vote NO to HB 1215 to repeal this draconian measure.  Anti-abortion and religious right groups are mounting a vigorous national campaign, to make South Dakota the first state to turn the clock of women's rights back to the middle of the last century.  Allen Unruh's site is here.

Leslee Unruh, who heads the "crisis pregnancy center" Alpha Center as well as the Abstinence Clearinghouse, was central to pushing the measure through the legislature.  In some cases, lobbying marched forward with Abstinence Clearinghouse support, according to the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, D.C., which in July 2006 filed a complaint with the IRS.  

Dakota Today by Doug Wiken tracks the Abstinence Clearinghouse and reports that on research showing it has received $3 million from the federal government under abstinence programs.

Chief among South Dakota proponents (of the abortion ban HB 1215) publicly lobbying for the highly-restrictive legislation was the national Abstinence Clearinghouse and its executive director.

The Abstinence Clearinghouse, located in South Dakota, is a national organization with affiliates throughout the United States, including over a half-dozen affiliates in Ohio. Since 2002 the organization has received nearly $3,000,000 in government funding to develop national criteria for the review of abstinence-only curricula, develop a directory of approved curricula, provide technical assistance and consultation to federal abstinence-only grantees, and provide medically accurate training and information to grantees. Recently U.S. Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA) has called for a federal investigation of the Abstinence Clearinghouse, contending conflicts of interest in contracting and inappropriate use of funds for lobbying purposes.

The AIDS Taskforce (of Cleveland, Ohio) is now adding to that call for a federal investigation, noting that Abstinence Clearinghouse executive director Leslee Unruh lobbied on behalf of the South Dakota abortion ban under the name of the Abstinence Clearinghouse, despite the fact that the non-profit organization receives taxpayer funds.

In 2003 and 2004 federal IRS tax filings, Ms. Unruh is listed simultaneously as executive director of the Abstinence Clearinghouse, and also as executive director of the Alpha Center, an anti-reproductive choice crisis pregnancy center that, like the Abstinence Clearinghouse, is located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. In 2004 Ms. Unruh reported compensation for 40 hours weekly as executive director of the Abstinence Clearinghouse was $109,920. In the same year her reported compensation as executive director of the Alpha Center at 30 hours a week was $57, 547.

Keeping reproductive freedom in South Dakota is a challenge -- but as Falwell notes, essential to convincing other states that this is not the time to turn back the clock on freedom.

Planned Parenthood is sponsoring potlucks around the country, and a theatrical group that I am part of, Words of Choice, will participate in public forums in South Dakota to help educate people about reproductive justice in a Go-Vote South Dakota tour.  

These efforts hope to engage people in conversations to counter the Falwell funds rushing to Rushmore.