South Dakota Abortion Ban Rally Features Hundreds as Vote Nears 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 19, 2006
Rapid City, SD (LifeNews.com) — A local event in this western South Dakota city to rally support for the statewide abortion ban drew a whopping 750 people. What’s good news for pro-life advocates who are focused on turning out as many pro-life voters as possible to back the ban next month.
The South Dakota Family Policy Council sponsored the rally at South Canyon Baptist Church, which featured former ambassador Alan Keyes.
Keyes, former Houston pastor Rick Scarborough and Pastor Laurence White of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Houston urged those attending to inform friends and neighbors about Referred Law 6, which would ban nearly all of the abortions done in the state.
He said the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade ruling, which the ban is meant to challenge, was unconstitutional.
“When the court touched the issue, they violated the constitution,” Keyes said, according to a Rapid City Journal news report.
Rapid City pediatrician Don Oliver also spoke during the rally, the newspaper reported, and said that a 16 year-old patient of his who had been raped decided to keep her baby rather than have an abortion.
“I have faith that if a 16-year-old can get it right, so can South Dakotans,” he said.
Meanwhile, Leslee Unruh, the head of the group trying to support the ban at the polls, said her organization is focusing on turning out pro-life voters to help them win.
"Our people are well trained and well organized. They are energetic. They’ve waited a long time for a day like this to come, where they all come together and work to do something," Unruh told the Associated Press.
Jan Nicolay of the pro-abortion South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families says her group will have a harder time because it had not been well organized in the state before.
"We have to identify our voters because we didn’t have that voter base to start with," Nicolay said. "For us, it’s crucial."
Unruh said that her group plans to have more than 30,000 signs in place across the state before election day and plans more television commercials.
She told AP that the best help people from other states can give is to donate to her campaign so it can keep reaching voters.
"If there’s a problem with the campaign, it’s been people from outside wanting to come in," Unruh said. "I’ve tried to focus on the voters of South Dakota."
"If you want to write out a check, that is how I see the outside help — donate," Unruh said.
Related web sites:
Vote Yes for Life – https://www.voteyesforlife.com
