South Dakota Pro-Life Advocates Outraise Opponents With State Dollars 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 2, 2006
Pierre, SD (LifeNews.com) — The pro-life Vote Yes for Life campaign, which supports the state’s abortion ban, filed new figures with the Secretary of State showing it outraised its pro-abortion counterparts. Meanwhile, about two-thirds of the group’s money came from donors within South Dakota while only 9 percent of the pro-abortion money is from state residents.
The pro-life campaign reported receiving nearly $2.2 million in donations from June 28 through Oct. 28 while the pro-abortion South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families raised about $1.8 million during the time period.
Abortion advocates said about $160,000 of the $1.8 million it raised came from state residents and the rest came from donors outside the state.
However, Vote Yes for Life said about 65% of its campaign contributions of more than $100 came from people and groups in South Dakota.
“I am in awe of the people who have sacrificed their jobs, time and money for this cause,” says VoteYesForLife.com Campaign Manager Leslee Unruh. “The numbers show that a broad base of South Dakotans back Referred Law 6 with their money, as well as their votes.”
The huge difference could be a harbinger of things to come after the polls close on Tuesday if the donations reflect the level of support each side is getting throughout the state.
In addition to their main campaign finance reports, the Campaign for Healthy Families in two supplemental finance reports lists more than $200,000 in additional contributions, while VoteYesforLife.com in a supplemental reported more than $155,000 in further donations.
Planned Parenthood, which runs the lone abortion business in the state, raised more than $626,000 to defeat the abortion ban and gave $325,000 of the money it raised to the South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families.
Meanwhile, a long-distance telephone company called Working Assets, set up to help abortion advocates give money to pro-abortion groups through their phone usage, raised more than $119,000 to defeat the abortion ban. It donated $92,000 to the pro-abortion campaign group.
The Republican majority for Choice also donated $17,000 to the SDCHF campaign.
The latest poll shows South Dakota residents oppose the statewide ban on most abortions by a 10 point margin.
The poll, which shows slightly different results compared to other ones, doesn’t have pro-life advocates concerned. They say they expected a majority of South Dakota residents to back the abortion ban next week.
Sponsored by the Argus Leader newspaper, the new poll finds 52 percent of South Dakota residents would vote against the abortion ban while 42 percent would support it and six percent say they are undecided.
That represents a change from the newspaper’s July survey which found a 47-39 percent split against the abortion ban.
As the July poll found, the new survey indicates that the abortion ban would have more support if it included exceptions for rape and incest. In that case, 56 percent said they would vote for the ban while just 29 percent would oppose it.
Leslee Unruh, the head of Vote Yes for Life, the pro-life group backing the abortion ban, says the new survey doesn’t worry her about next week’s results.
“The only poll that counts is on election day and we intend to win,” Unruh said in a statement sent to LifeNews.com. “Frankly, we have seen many other private polls that show this contest is a dead heat.”
Related web sites:
Vote Yes for Life – https://www.voteyesforlife.com
