Our Response to the Attacks Against Jon Hansen

In regards to some of the attacks on the Jon Hansen campaign, we would like to clarify a few FACTS in the matter.  The attack ads referring to Jon Hansen as a "community organizer" seem to make light of the FACT that Jon Hansen in many respects put his life on hold at great sacrifice to his family and career to pick up the fight against the extreme out-of-state abortion interests that wanted to make unregulated abortion legal in South Dakota.  Jon Hansen and Leslee Unruh led the fight by organizing pro-lifers throughout the state two years before we ever voted on Amendment G.  Their leadership in that fight was timely and visionary.  Since our vote on Amendment G, pro-life groups from all over the country have studied what Jon and Leslee's leadership accomplished to try to replicate the same in their state due to its unprecedented success.  To distill Jon's pro-life work down to "community organizer" is an intentional insult.  Jon's grit and determination in combating abortion interests at every point from petition signatures to the courtroom was inspiring.  Jon and Leslee's leadership helped keep South Dakota Right to Life on the same page with all the other pro-life interests in South Dakota and help make us work together like a well-oiled machine.  That work paid off when pro-abortion forces suffered a humiliating defeat at the ballot box on Amendment G.  It would have likely turned out very differently without the steady leadership and remarkable pairing of Jon and Leslee at the helm. 

Another point of contention would be the attack ads on surrogacy aimed at Jon Hansen.  Yes, Jon Hansen authored legislation regulating surrogacy.  South Dakota Right to Life was frequently a supporter of Jon's legislation since he specifically was targeting surrogacy contracts that were forcing pregnant mothers to have abortions when the baby was no longer wanted or selective reductions in cases where the second twin was a breach of the surrogacy contract.  Coercing and entrapping surrogate mothers into forced abortions is a disgusting practice that cheapens both the mother and unborn child's lives by treating them as dispensable commodities.  We proudly stood by Jon Hansen's efforts to bring some sanity to the Wild West of surrogacy contracts.  Though these ads are seemingly from different PACs (Rushmore Principles PAC and SD Families for Fertility PAC), both are funded by out-of-state PACs affiliated with Dusty Johnson (Republican Forward Super PAC of Alabama) and have spent more than $1.7 million (SD SOS) on behalf of Dusty Johnson's governorship campaign.  This type of coordinated PAC spending is not an accident, and Dusty Johnson needs to stand up and put a stop to these shameful attack ads or at least above board enough to do them directly through his own registered campaign.  South Dakota Right to Life has not endorsed any candidates in this primary and looks forward toward honest and thoughtful discussions on pro-life issues among the candidates for the remainder of this election season.