By Denise Ross

The proposed abortion ban has registered a lead in the polls, said Leslee Unruh of Vote Yes for Life. She told the Rapid City Journal she’s going to focus on West River efforts through Election Day.

(Photos by Denise)

Unruh led the program Monday night at the opening of the Vote Yes campaign office in Rapid City, offering an endorsement of Catholic Bishop Blase Cupich’s call for a gentle campaign.

The bishop warned against the gotcha’s and shrill shouting that have come to characterize the modern American political campaign. He said:

We will lose if we come off that way with people. We have a good argument to make. We should tell stories in a very human context, not in a way of harshness that makes enemies.

Unruh agreed and remembered her time on the other side of the issue, noting that she herself had an abortion - which she now regrets.

I was a person on the other side for so many years. I had an abortion and justified that abortion. The more angry people were with me, the more I put my heels in.

It’s got to be the love approach.

Meanwhile, back to Mary Garrigan’s story in the RC Journal, Unruh said she plans to spend most of her time in western South Dakota through the election.

(T)he campaign’s manager said she planned to spend the last month of the campaign in West River to ensure victory for Measure 11 on Nov. 4. “We lost out here last time,” Leslee Unruh said. “I’m going to keep an eye on things this time.”

AND …

Unruh said pre-election polls show South Dakotans favoring the proposed abortion ban by 9 points statewide, but less than that in Rapid City.

A 9-point lead? Anybody else got this information? If it was reported anywhere before this, I missed it.

Meanwhile, about those personal stories, Rapid City native and Vote Yes for Life staffer Rachel Rieman delivered hers quite effectively Monday.

Rieman was pregnant at age 19, a sophomore in college and single, and she seriously considered abortion, she said.

I can see how women end up there. You’re scared.  

After an epiphany prompted by an “Abortion: The Choice that Kills” billboard along Interstate 90, she said she banished the thought and began telling family and friends of her predicament despite fears they would be angry.

Even when doctors told her that her daughter’s brain was not developing properly, Rieman rejected the idea of ending her pregnancy. Her daughter, Lily, lived for 32 days, and she credits the ordeal with bringing her family closer together.

She brought us together as a family. We got to grieve as a family.

Unruh said when she counsels families like Rieman’s in her role at the Alpha Center in Sioux Falls, she does encounter angry parents and often hears the refrain: “My dad’s gonna kill me.”

I try to fast foward 9 months and tell them, ‘You’ll be looking through a different window. You won’t be as mad as you are right now.’

Spread the word

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