Leslee Unruh

Last updated
Leslee Unruh
Years active1984–present
Known for Anti-abortion advocacy
SpouseAllen Unruh

Leslee Unruh is an American anti-abortion advocate and public speaker. Since 1983, she has been active in the anti-abortion movement and abstinence-until-marriage movement, with organizations based in South Dakota. She has been vocal in state and national government, previously serving as executive director to the "VoteYesForLife" campaign. [1]

Contents

Organizations

Omega Maternity Home

In 1983, Leslee Unruh founded the Omega Maternity Home in Sioux Falls, SD. Omega Maternity Home provided a “home environment that encourages these young women to set goals for their lives and learn to become independent” as well as giving “the tools to survive and develop so they will not need to rely on welfare programs.” [2] A licensed social worker was on staff, available to provide counseling and aftercare programs for the women. [3] The maternity home was run on private donations. Omega Maternity Home was open until 1994.

National Abstinence Clearinghouse

In 1996, she founded the National Abstinence Clearinghouse, a non-profit based in Sioux Falls, SD. The Clearinghouse serves as a resource center, providing information on abstinence until marriage programs. [4] The organization grew rapidly after a federal government grant of $50 million for abstinence programs split between organizations. Its first conference was organized in 1998 in Minneapolis, MN. [5] Unruh has talked about the activities of National Abstinence Clearinghouse on The Oprah Winfrey Show and PBS. [6] [7]

Alpha Center

The Alpha Center is a pregnancy help center in Sioux Falls that provides pregnancy testing, STD testing, ultrasounds, and counselling for pregnant women. [8]

Politics

In March 2006, Unruh was a key lobbyist supporting the Women's Health and Human Life Protection Act in South Dakota, which banned abortion in almost any circumstances, including those where the pregnancy threatened the woman's health and life. Eight months later it was overturned by South Dakota's voters in a referendum. An amended version of the bill, with exceptions for rape, incest, and maternal health, was scheduled for a new vote in 2008. The amended was seen by all sides as the vehicle for a potential challenge to Roe v. Wade in the Supreme Court. [9]

Unruh's "informed consent" law requires South Dakota doctors to tell patients that abortion can cause depression and sterility, among other side-effects. Initially found to be unconstitutional, [ when? ] this law resurfaced in June 2008 when the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned. [10] A lower court's ruling blocked enforcement of the law; as of 2009, the case was back in district court. Unruh's activism garnered South Dakota $200 million in federal funding to be spent teaching abstinence outside of marriage to public school students. [11]

Unruh is a prominent donor to Republican candidates. [12]

Views

Unruh does not support contraception. [13] Unruh has spoken in favor of purity balls. [14]

Recognition

For her efforts in South Dakota, Unruh was awarded the 2006 Malachi Award by Operation Save America, a Christian organization. [15]

Related Research Articles

Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992), was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in which the Court upheld the right to have an abortion as established by the "essential holding" of Roe v. Wade (1973) and issued as its "key judgment" the restoration of the undue burden standard when evaluating state-imposed restrictions on that right. Both the essential holding of Roe and the key judgment of Casey were overturned by the Supreme Court in 2022, with its landmark decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.

<i>Argus Leader</i> Newspaper published in South Dakota

The Argus Leader is the daily newspaper of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It is the largest newspaper by total circulation in South Dakota.

The Women's Health and Human Life Protection Act was a state law passed by the South Dakota State Legislature in early 2006. It emerged as an effort to overturn Roe v. Wade via enacting a ban on abortion in the state of South Dakota. The law was repealed by voter referendum on November 7, 2006.

This is a timeline of reproductive rights legislation, a chronological list of laws and legal decisions affecting human reproductive rights. Reproductive rights are a sub-set of human rights pertaining to issues of reproduction and reproductive health. These rights may include some or all of the following: the right to legal or safe abortion, the right to birth control, the right to access quality reproductive healthcare, and the right to education and access in order to make reproductive choices free from coercion, discrimination, and violence. Reproductive rights may also include the right to receive education about contraception and sexually transmitted infections, and freedom from coerced sterilization, abortion, and contraception, and protection from practices such as female genital mutilation (FGM).

A trigger law is a law that is unenforceable but may achieve enforceability if a key change in circumstances occurs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abortion law in the United States by state</span>

The legality of abortion in the United States and the various restrictions imposed on the procedure vary significantly, depending on the laws of each state or other jurisdiction, although there is no uniform federal law. Some states prohibit abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with few exceptions; others permit it up to a certain point in a woman's pregnancy, while some allow abortion throughout a woman's pregnancy. In states where abortion is legal, several classes of restrictions on the procedure may exist, such as parental consent or notification laws, requirements that patients be shown an ultrasound before obtaining an abortion, mandatory waiting periods, and counseling requirements.

A six-week abortion ban, also called a "fetal heartbeat bill" by proponents, is a law in the United States which makes abortion illegal as early as six weeks gestational age, which is when proponents claim that a "fetal heartbeat" can be detected. Medical and reproductive health experts, including the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, say that the reference to a fetal heartbeat is medically inaccurate and misleading, for a conceptus is not called a fetus until eight weeks after fertilization, as well as that at four weeks after fertilization, the embryo has no heart, only a group of cells which will become a heart. Medical professionals advise that a true fetal heartbeat cannot be detected until around 17 to 20 weeks of gestation when the chambers of the heart have become sufficiently developed.

Abortion in Oklahoma is illegal unless the abortion is necessary to save the life of a pregnant woman.

Abortion in Texas is illegal in most cases. There are nominally exceptions to save the mother's life, or prevent "substantial impairment of major bodily function", but the law on abortion in Texas is written in such an ambiguous way that life-threatening or harmful pregnancies do not explicitly constitute an exception.

As of 2024, abortion is illegal in Indiana. It is only legal in cases involving fatal fetal abnormalities, to preserve the life and physical health of the mother, and in cases of rape or incest up to 10 weeks of pregnancy. Previously abortion in Indiana was legal up to 20 weeks; a near-total ban that was scheduled to take effect on August 1, 2023, was placed on hold due to further legal challenges, but is set to take place, after the Indiana Supreme Court denied an appeal by the ACLU, and once it certifies a previous ruling that an abortion ban doesn't violate the state constitution. In the wake of the 2022 Dobbs Supreme Court ruling, abortion in Indiana remained legal despite Indiana lawmakers voting in favor of a near-total abortion ban on August 5, 2022. Governor Eric Holcomb signed this bill into law the same day. The new law became effective on September 15, 2022. However, on September 22, 2022, Special Judge Kelsey B. Hanlon of the Monroe County Circuit Court granted a preliminary injunction against the enforcement of the ban. Her ruling allows the state's previous abortion law, which allows abortions up to 20 weeks after fertilization with exceptions for rape and incest, to remain in effect.

Abortion in Maine is legal, although terminations after fetal viability can only be performed if a physician determines it to be medically necessary. According to a poll by the Pew Research Center, 64% of adults said that abortion should be legal, with 33% stating that it should be illegal in all or most cases.

Abortion in North Dakota is illegal. The state's sole abortion clinic relocated to Minnesota.

Abortion is legal in Pennsylvania up to the 24th week of pregnancy. 51% of Pennsylvania adults said in a 2014 poll by the Pew Research Center that abortion should be legal and 44% said it should be illegal in all or most cases.

Abortion in South Dakota is illegal. Anyone who induces an abortion is guilty of a Class 6 felony. An exception is included to "preserve the life of the pregnant female," given appropriate and reasonable medical judgment.

Abortion in California is legal up to the point of fetal viability. An abortion ban was in place by 1900, and by 1950, it was a criminal offense for a woman to have an abortion. In 1962, the American Law Institute published their model penal code, as it applied to abortions, with three circumstances where they believed a physician could justifiably perform an abortion, and California adopted a version of this code. In 2002, the California State Legislature passed a law guaranteeing women the right to have an abortion "prior to viability of the fetus, or when the abortion is necessary to protect the life or health of the woman". In 2022, California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 1, which amended the Constitution of California to explicitly protect the right to abortion and contraception by a margin of 33.76%.

Abortion in Florida is generally illegal after six weeks from the woman's last menstrual period, when many women do not yet know they are pregnant. This law came into effect in May 2024, being approved by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis following its passage in the Florida House of Representatives and the Florida Senate, with only Republican state legislators supporting and only Democratic state legislators opposing. Additionally, pregnant women are generally required to make two visits to a medical facility 24 hours apart to be able to obtain an abortion, in a law approved by Republican Governor Rick Scott in 2015.

Abortion in Wyoming is currently legal due to a temporary court injunction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jon Hansen</span> American attorney and legislator

Jon Hansen serves as a representative for the 25th Legislative District in the South Dakota House of Representatives. A member of the Republican Party, he formerly served as the Speaker pro tempore of the South Dakota House of Representatives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States abortion protests (2022–present)</span> 2022 protests following the ruling of Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization

A series of ongoing protests supporting abortion rights and anti-abortion counter-protests began in the United States on May 2, 2022, following the leak of a draft majority opinion for the U.S. Supreme Court case Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which stated that the Constitution of the United States does not confer any Reproductive rights, thus overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court officially overturned Roe and Casey in Dobbs, resulting in further protests outside of the U.S. Supreme Court building and across the country, eventually to major cities across the world both in favor of and against the decision.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2024 South Dakota Amendment G</span> Proposed amendment to the South Dakota Constitution

South Dakota Amendment G is a proposed constitutional amendment that will appear on the ballot on November 5, 2024. If passed, the amendment would establish a right to abortion in the Constitution of South Dakota up until approximately the second trimester of pregnancy.

References

  1. ↑ "Taking Sides Can Be Risky Business". Newspapers.com. Argus Leader. Retrieved 1 September 2022.
  2. ↑ "Home Helps Women in Crisis Pregnancies". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 1 September 2022.
  3. ↑ "Omega Maternity Home". Newspapers.com. Argus Leader.
  4. ↑ Lowy, Jean (October 18, 1999). "Congress set to double funding for say-no-to-sex programs". Greenville News. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
  5. ↑ "First national conference preaches abstinence". June 15, 1998. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
  6. ↑ LaBoe, Barbara (October 13, 1999). "Rally promotes teen sex abstinence". The Montana Standard. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
  7. ↑ "NOW on PBS". IMDB. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
  8. ↑ Todd, Nicole Ki and Annie. "Anti-abortion groups have worked to overturn Roe v. Wade. Now victorious, what's next?". Argus Leader. Retrieved 2022-12-30.
  9. ↑ "Amanda Robb's interviews with and about Leslee Unruh in April 2009". Archived from the original on Feb 8, 2010. Retrieved Jun 11, 2019.
  10. ↑ U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, Case number 05-3093, opinion issued June 27, 2008. Available at "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-05-14. Retrieved 2011-03-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  11. ↑ "Amanda Robb interviews, ibid". Archived from the original on Feb 8, 2010. Retrieved Jun 11, 2019.
  12. ↑ "As South Dakota campaigns launch, Thune mulls retirement". KELOLAND.com. 2022-01-03. Retrieved 2022-12-30.
  13. ↑ Winter, Meaghan (2015-04-06). ""Save the Mother, Save the Baby": An Inside Look at a Pregnancy Center Conference". Cosmopolitan. Retrieved 2022-12-30.
  14. ↑ "Teen girls say \'I do\' to dad and \'no\' to sex - Taipei Times". www.taipeitimes.com. 2007-03-24. Retrieved 2022-12-30.
  15. ↑ "Operation Rescue Announces 2006 Recipients of the Malachi Man and Woman of the Year Awards - Christian Newswire". www.christiannewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved Jun 11, 2019.
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