VoteYesForLife.com Launches First Ad Urging Voters To Uphold State Abortion Ban

Leslee Unruh, campaign manager for the antiabortion group VoteYesForLife.com, is encouraging South Dakota residents to vote in the November election to uphold a law (HB 1215) banning abortion in the state except to save a woman's life, the Los Angeles Times reports. The group's campaign -- the first public antiabortion campaign centered around the procedure's affects on women -- has bumper stickers and T-shirts saying, "Abortion hurts women," according to the Times. It also has released a radio advertisement, an online video, a DVD and fliers that feature testimony from women who say they regret having an abortion or decided against having the procedure. "We women buy the choice line," Unruh said, adding, "We're panicked or we're being pressured, or we're ashamed to have a child outside marriage." She added that she admonishes "with a passion" messages such as a Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls, S.D., voter guide calling abortion a "moral evil" and part of the "culture of death." According to the Times, some abortion-rights advocates say VoteYesForLife.com's rhetoric is "patronizing and presumptuous," adding that many women have found "relief and the freedom to pursue other dreams" by having the procedure. In addition, the American Psychological Association has found abortion to have "few long-term emotional risks" for women, and many clinic physicians refuse to perform the procedure on women they believe were coerced, the Times reports.

Group Opposing Ban Focuses on Lack of Exceptions
The South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families, a coalition that successfully blocked the July 1 enactment of the ban, has focused its campaign on the "inflexibil[ity]" of the law, rather than on a woman's right to have abortion, according to the Times (Simon, Los Angeles Times, 10/9). The Campaign for Healthy Families last month launched its first television ad calling on voters to reject the law. The ad asks, "Should a woman who's the victim of rape or incest be left with no option?" It adds that the law, which appears on the November ballot as Referred Law 6, does not make exceptions to the abortion ban in cases of rape, incest or when the pregnant woman's health is in jeopardy (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 9/20). VoteYesForLife.com on Thursday launched its first television advertisement, titled "Get the facts," which features an assortment of photos of South Dakota women with a voice-over announcer saying that rape and incest victims can "access the best options for medical care, compassion and justice," including emergency contraception, the AP/Sioux City Journal reports. Jan Nicolay, co-chair of the Campaign for Healthy Families, said she thinks the VoteYesForLife.com ad is "part of their continual sham on the rape and incest issue, and it doesn't take care of the issue on the health of the women." Kimberly Martinez, spokesperson for VoteYesForLife.com, said, "The women of South Dakota need to know that they have options if they find themselves the victims of a sexual crime" (Lammers, AP/Sioux City Journal, 10/5). According to the AP/Washington Post, both sides have recruited rape survivors in the state to their campaigns, and both sides are accusing each other of being "dominated by out-of-state groups" (Crary, AP/Washington Post, 10/8).

NPR's "All Things Considered" on Monday reported on campaigns conducted by opponents and supporters of the South Dakota abortion ban. The segment includes comments from Kelly Furman, a volunteer with the Campaign for Healthy Families; state Rep. Roger Hunt (R), the ban's sponsor; Sarah Stoesz, president of Planned Parenthood Minnesota-North Dakota-South Dakota; Unruh; and South Dakota residents (Rovner, "All Things Considered," NPR, 10/9). The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer. In addition, PBS' "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" on Monday reported on the campaigns. The segment includes comments from state Sen. Julie Bartling (D); Maria Bell, a Sioux Falls ob-gyn who is co-chair of the Campaign for Healthy Families; Robert Burns, a political scientist at South Dakota State University; Glenn Ritter, a Sioux Falls family physician who supports the ban; and Unruh (de Sam Lazaro, "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," PBS, 10/9). The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer.

"Reprinted with permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.