The South Dakota attorney general recently filed a complaint asking a judge to decide whether a group that worked to uphold the state's abortion ban must reveal the name of its sole donor.

According to the filing, the real purpose of the group Promising Future, created by Rep. Roger Hunt (who was also one of the architects of the ban), was "to provide a corporate shell by which the sole shareholder could make anonymous contributions to ballot question committees that supported the passage." Some legislators are calling for Hunt's suspension from office until he agrees to identify the donor.

In other good news, state legislators say it's highly unlikely that anti-choicers will try to pass another abortion ban in the coming years.

And while we're back to talking about South Dakota, it's worth mentioning this item from the Christian press in which prominent anti-choicer Leslee Unruh admits that during the campaign she faced more harassment from hardline "pro-lifers" than from pro-choicers.

"When you’re running a pro-life campaign the last thing you need is pro-lifers who have a different strategy and won’t respect the people in the state," Unruh said.

"The pro-life community can’t continue to do this," she added. "When someone works as hard as I have for 22 years, the outside pro-lifers coming in and bringing trucks and (bringing) anger and hate—that affects the community."

All of the tactics that "scared" Unruh are classic moves by anti-abortion groups: gory photos of dismembered fetuses, disruptive prayer vigils, and videotaping reporters and volunteers. Maybe our gal Leslee should be asking pro-choicers for some advice. We've got a lot of experience dealing with that sort of harassment.

This may also be a sign that Unruh's brand of anti-choice/"pro-woman" framing could divide the anti-abortion movement -- separating the savvier types (see also: Feminists for Life) from those who won't stop screaming, "don't kill the baaaaabies!". I think the antis who falsely fly the "pro-woman" flag make for more formidable adversaries. But this tactical split could make the anti-choicers compete within the movement for resources and political support, which could work in pro-choicers' favor in the end.

2 Comments

January 3, 2007 7:20 PM

[0+|0-]  Tom Head said:

We saw a lot of that in Mississippi. The old director of the state anti-choice group stepped down because she wanted to work with churches and legislators and go for stuff that she thought would actually help her cause, and distanced herself from the Operation Rescue people when they came down over the summer with the nasty fetus truck and all that. Her replacement is a little more radical, a little more eager to work with the wingnuts.

Cheers,

TH

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January 4, 2007 12:08 PM

[0+|0-]  SDstuck said:

Unruh was working with Operation Rescue and has a tight relationship with them. They were out here protesting with Unruh's groups signs in hand. Unruh also had a hand in Operation Rescue bringing their fetus trucks to town the previous summer. What scared the hell out of her was the people from Army of God who showed up. They brought their own fetus trucks, started filming people at Planned Parenthood and posting it online. They were showing up at churches and harassing people. There was also a group called Missionaries to the Preborn who have ties to Army of God. They showed up with the same tactics and were street protesting and hassling students at the local colleges. Then there were handfuls of rogue one or two people operations that showed up in town doing the same tactics. It was scary as a citizen and there was more than once I worried about being shot for being publicly pro choice. The Healthy Families office had to keep their doors locked and said they had problems. But most of the problems they had were from Vote Yes people who were following them, coming in the office making disturbances. People from the campaign said that people they knew that were with vote yes would show up at restaurants they went out to lunch at and try to overhear conversations.
What Unruh does not want to admit is that her cause and desired end result is the same as the Army of God guys.

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