I can’t say that I was surprised when I read that some of the most outspoken proponents of South Dakota’s abortion ban have encountered a great deal of hostility for speaking their minds. Leslee Unruh, the director of a Sioux Falls pregnancy resource center and the head of Abstinence Clearinghouse, has had to deal with more than her share of trouble. Her house has been egged, she’s received threatening phone calls in the middle of the night, and she’s been mailed coat hangers by those who claim women will die if abortion is made illegal. Unruh’s husband, a doctor who is also an outspoken pro-lifer, has had dead animal carcasses placed on his chiropractic clinic’s property, making some of his employees scared to go to work. Unruh comments:
I am sad for all the people that send the hangers and have all this anger because of being connected to the abortion issue in their own lives. I’m concerned about my whole country now. I thought you were at least free to say what you thought, but they do not want me to speak. Not only do they want to hush unborn children, they don’t want me to talk about it, either.
She’s taking all this unpleasantness in stride, however. As for the coat hangers, she intends to use them to hang up baby clothes at her pregnancy resource center.
