RIGHT TO LIFE TOOK PRO-LIFE DONATIONS TO OPPOSE 100% PRO-LIFE LEGISLATORS
By Senate President Pro Tempore Lee Schoenbeck
In the early 1980’s Ruth Karim, one of the founders of South Dakota Right to Life, asked me to serve on their Board of Directors. I was honored to accept, which makes me one of the oldest (since service) surviving members of that board. You can imagine my shock and disappointment when I saw the SD Right to Life logo on campaign literature against two 100% SDRTL voting record House members: Mike Derby and Becky Drury. This misuse of donor funds, and SDRTL’s venture into being an attack group on 100% pro-life SDRTL voting record legislators inspired this article. We donors need to know that SDRTL is no longer using our funds to protect our state’s most vulnerable children, the unborn.
Sadly, they are doing this at a point in time when we need to instead be all hands-on deck fighting the pro-abortion ballot measure. Their actions make no sense.
My Bona Fides
Since this article draws on history and will likely inspire attacks by those supporting and encouraging the misuse of our pro-life donations, indulge a moment to comment on my qualifications to comment.
I don’t pay attention to ratings, but pretty sure for all the years SDRTL did ratings during my 14 sessions, I would have had a 100% rating.
In 2004 Rep Matt McCaulley introduced South Dakota’s first effort at an abortion ban, HB 1191. I was the prime Senate sponsor. There’s a great article Leslie Unruh wrote about how I got the bill through the senate 18-17 when I really only had 17 votes. This was in a time when abortion legislation fights were real.
In 2005 Rep Joel Dykstra introduced our current trigger law, HB 1249. I was a Senate co-sponsor and handled the floor debate.
I can’t claim to solely have the strongest pro-life record in the legislature. As you will see below, Sen Hunhoff and soon-to-be- again Rep Keri Weems have comparable records.
RIGHT TO LIFE TOOK PRO-LIFE DONATIONS TO OPPOSE 100% PRO-LIFE LEGISLATORS
According to recent campaign finance reports, SDRTL’s Board of Directors transferred $10,000 of donor funds to SDRTL’s PAC. The only other funds received by their PAC was $100 personally from Dale Bartscher.
Donors, like myself, would assume these funds were to concentrate on the pro-abortion ballot issue we face in November. But, NO. Dale Bartscher and his Board diverted those donor funds for a very different purpose – and it is all public record.
The board diverted donor funds to 16 races, of which only 3 were incumbents! 13 challengers, with no proven record of handling our pro-life battles, received our donor dollars.
SDRTL PAC 2024 PRE-PRIMARY Report on Scribd
Ten 100% pro-life voting record legislators were opposed by SD Right To Life, in spite of being PERFECT PROVEN pro-life public servants:
- Representative Steph Sauder of Hamlin County has a 100% rating, and she was the top target of SDRTL in her senate race! Why you say? SDRTL diverted our donor dollars to help one of their board members, in spite of Steph Sauder having a perfect pro-life voting record.
- Senator Erin Tobin, with a 100% pro-life voting record, and a nurse practitioner who worked with other legislators to try and position South Dakota to beat the abortion ballot issue (the one SDRTL was stealing funds from working against).
- Senator Mike Walsh not only has a 100% pro-life voting record, he carried these life defining and pro-life attributes: American veteran, spouse of active military and retired respected law enforcement officer. Sounds like our perfect senator – SDRTL spent money to beat him!
- Representative Brian Mulder carried a 100% pro-life voting record and has been an assistant pastor at Central Baptist in Sioux Falls. SDRTL spent money to beat him, and former Rep Keri Weems (see that odd story below).
- In a Sioux Falls District, where we pro-lifers had the benefit of two incumbent 100% pro-life voting incumbents, Representatives Greg Jamison and Amber Arlint, SDRTL spent money to beat them! This is about as perfect of an example of SDRTL going to the dark side, except there are at least two districts where they were stronger in their anti-life actions!
- Representative Tony Venhuizen has a 100% pro-life voting record, and SDRTL spent money to try and beat him. In that race, newcomer Brad Jankord was also pro-life, but SDRTL opposed him too !
- In Yankton, Representative Mike Stevens, the House Speaker Pro Tempore has a 100% pro-life voting record as defined by SDRTL, but still they spent money to beat him
- In Rapid City, two incumbents, Representatives Mike Derby and Becky Drury both had a 100% pro-life voting record as determined by SDRTL. Under those circumstances, donors like me would say, easy call: Derby and Drury. We would be wrong, SDRTL spent donor dollars to oppose both 100% pro-life voting record representatives. Donors did not give SDRTL money all these years for them to oppose pro-life public servants.
SD RIGHT TO LIFE’s WORK AGAINST OUR PRO-LIFE CAUSE WAS EVEN WORSE THAN IT LOOKS
It appears the SDRTL didn’t care where our real pro-life legislator strength lies.
For example, they spent our donor dollars to beat Keri Weems, US Senator John Thune’s sister-in-law. Keri was previously in the legislature. If Jon Hansen, Dale Bartscher and Fred Deutsch knew how to turn on a computer, they would have seen that Rep Keri Weems was a cosponsor of our abortion ban bill in 2004 and of Rep Dykstra’s trigger bill (our current pro-life law) in 2005. When there were real fights, she was our pro-life warrior – and SDRTL wants to keep her out of the legislature!
Another great example is Jim Halverson, who SDRTL spent hard to beat. Most real pro-lifers know that Sen Harold Halverson would be on a list of top ten pro-life heroes to serve in Pierre. His SON, Jim shares his father’s values. Yet, SDRTL spent our donor dollars to beat the next generation of our best.
The most egregious misuse of donor dollars was in Yankton. Objectively, Senator Jean Hunhoff is the longest tenured 100% dependable pro-life vote in the Capitol. A very unusual House candidate in Yankton spent a serious amount of time attacking Jean and recruiting an opponent for Jean. Given that Jean has objectively cast more pro-life votes for us and was a co-sponsor of our abortion ban and Rep Dykstra’s trigger law, you would expect her to be the biggest benefactor of SDRTL’s gifts of our donor dollars. You would be wrong. She received ZERO. The House member attacking her? Zero? Nope! Jean’s attacker made the category for the third largest checks of our donor dollars. If you are in Yankton and see the Hunhoff families at mass, how do you reconcile sending funds to an organization attacking their family member’s faith filled public service?
Lastly, many pro-life donors like and respect US Congressman Dusty Johnson. He is a solid pro-life vote in the Congress. I can think of many Mitchell and Pierre area pro-life supporters that love Dusty Johnson. Remember the nasty campaign run against him two years ago, where Taffy Howard took $500,000 of dark money to smear Dusty’s character in the last month of the campaign? Still, a majority of South Dakotans voting Republicans told Taffy Howard’s lie-filled campaign to get lost.
This year the senate race in Rapid featured pro-life Republican Jason Green, a mild, life-long Hills resident, versus the rejected Taffy Howard. Guess where SDRTL put their money? Yup, they went with the nasty campaigner that’s to this day obsessed with hating Dusty Johnson. Not sure which version of Christian life that SDRTL board reads about, but that nasty lady isn’t any part of the New Testament. Ask the pro-lifers in Pierre and Mitchell that know Dusty and his family.
SO WHAT IS GOING ON? WHY DID SD RIGHT TO LIFE QUIT BEING PRO-LIFE ADVOCATES?
I’m going to write a longer piece on this subject soon, but the answer is very clear. Follow the donor dollars that were diverted from fighting the ballot measure. All of the money went to people on the extreme end of the political spectrum. Only candidates that would support the political careers of Jon Hansen, Fred Deutsch, Scott Odenbach and Spencer Gosch were worthy of seeing our misappropriated donor dollars.
What these people have done with our donor dollars is much worse than this looks. We always were about pro-life. Now, SDRTL spends our dollars to oppose 100% pro-life public servants. Only those that are part of the “tin foil hat” world view, so they will support Jon Hansen for Speaker and Scott Odenbach for Majority Leader, were deemed worthy of getting our misappropriated funds.
We pro-lifers, that aren’t part of the “tin foil hat” world need a place to send our funds in support of the sanctity of life. There are thousands of us in South Dakota. Hopefully a trustworthy new option will surface. We still have much work to do to reach the hearts and minds across our whole state on the sanctity of human life. Time to go hug our kids and grandkids and pray for our future.
—
Republican State Senator Lee Schoenbeck is currently President Pro Tempore of the State Senate, and has a total of 14 years’ service in the South Dakota Legislature.
Senator: Wake Up and smell the coffee.These folks are interested solely in the destruction of the Republican Party. And yes, to the “tin hat faction,” nothing and no one is exempt from their sightless wrath.
Disgusted and disappointed.
Honestly, I’m in shock Right-to-Life spent money to defeat pro-life legislators.
Disgusting.
Take a look at the books for Protecting SD Kids. They invested other peoples monies, and their own, on candidates that are morally corrupt. This group is organized by people who are faith based on the outside, are weak in the mind and are amateurs in the political arena. For people that act in judgement of others daily from their throwns, they really have no idea how to vet candidates.
Anny you favor full legalization and commercialization?
Not at all. I am completely against weed. I favor that a group that takes money to support their efforts, fully vets the candidates that they financially back. These people were chosen on their faith.
The list of candidates that group contributed to is atrocious. Travis Ismay?! Here was his attempt to “stop” marijuana – “We will not allow the legalization of federally BAND substances on our ballot.” Yup. That’s what was submitted to the LRC. One sentence. Misspelled. An illiterate, hypocritical, racist moron will be representing District 28B. This is who will be authoring bills in our legislature. But thank goodness he isn’t part of the “establishment”. People need to be really cautious when donating to these organizations, that in turn take their money and donate it to their PACs. Those PACs may be using that money to promote candidates that are barely part of the human race.
So you support legalizing rec?
How do you make that leap? No, I don’t support legalizing recreational usage. But I also don’t support giving money to an intellectually challenged dolt who spent three years trying to craft a ballot initiative to repeal medical marijuana. He failed so spectacularly in his endeavor, that he didn’t get anywhere near enough signatures to even bother to turn the petitions in to the Secretary of State’s office. Maybe that’s not the guy you want leading your charge against… well, anything.
Travis is going to need a lot of help with basic concepts and protocol in Pierre. He may need a babysitter or handler to help him. Otherwise he is going to struggle and get into trouble. More than likely Travis and his associates are going to get South Dakota in the national news again and it will be embarrassing. He does what he wants and can see him lighting up one of his big fat cigars in committee or on the house floor, interrupting and speaking freely being out of order.
Are you against Freedom?
You mean Freedumb?
No, that’s where you restrict people from doing things with their own body. Freedom allows you to choose how to live as long as you’re not hurting others.
So it sounds like you are a freedom hating South Dakotan. For shame.
it’s the child’s body. He just happens to sit in his mother’s lap for 9 months. Babies can be very annoying, especially if they have colic, or frequent ear infections. It should not be legal to kill someone just because he’s annoying.
Flawed and selfish logic thinking legalizing and commercializing recreational MJ does not harm not only the user but the ripple effect is far and wide. At least Representative elect Ismay recognizes that. The residents of their county were thrown under the bus with all kinds of issues with more grow facilities then anywhere else in the state.
Wasn’t smart enough to recognize the basic business math of it. Without legalized recreational use, the grow operations didn’t have enough demand to support themselves. They were already shuttering in Butte County. Instead of wasting his time with attempting to repeal medical marijuana (which everyone knew didn’t have a prayer), he should have been spending his time fighting the efforts to legalize recreational. District 28B would be better off with no representation than this incoming embarrassment.
Well what is done is done. Within two years you or someone else can run for that seat. Until then or unless the Dems run someone and wins Travis Ismay will be a legislator from that district and be a member of the diver team.
Why haven’t states that legalized overturned that decision?
I hope that question is asked in a televised debate by the addiction profiteers.
I think Anne knows a thing or two about profiting off addiction?
SDRTL just took their own pro-life army and tried to slaughter them. Why? They are corrupt. Is it because they will keep getting money from donations if the ballot measure passes? Why didn’t they use this to fight the ballot measure? What is the reason? They need to answer to their diners and the pro life community.
*donors
You think that’s bad and disappointing…go comb through the Life Defense Fund statewide ballot question committee filings. Jon Hansen has raised over $200K from South Dakotans wanting to keep a radical abortion amendment off the ballot, or at the very least to defeat it. But no, Jon has paid himself at least over $120,000 and counting just for us to be facing the ballot measure that will unfortunately pass this fall. Disgusting!
Where are you getting that? I do see that there are funds being paid for consulting, but there’s no indication who those expenses are being paid to.
If you are going to make that kind of statement, please cite your sources.
Get rid of the whole lot. This is disgusting.
I call for Dale Bartscher to resign immediately! Along with his entire crock of crooks, he calls a “Board”. Inexcusable and unacceptable – He totes that the organization, the board, and PAC are completely separate, all while hiding behind his false “Christian” facade – You should be ashamed Dale. I’m ashamed I ever gave money to SDRL, never again – not until they’ve cleaned house – which won’t happen because they’ve stacked it!
Don’t forget: Jesus sees all! Shame on you!
This is absolutely atrocious!!!
The board members should be asked what selection criteria was used if being rated 100% on their scorecard was not good enough.
First and most importantly, Dale is separate from the PAC, Hanson and Deutsch are not on the PAC committee and did not influence it’s decisions
Since enactment of the trigger law with the repeal of Roe, scoring 100% didn’t require much pro Life dedication, especially since SDRTL was successful when it requested that a bad bill be tabled. That bill would have created a mental health exception to our abortion ban and was sponsored and supported by some of those candidates Lee is lamenting.
Of course we supported Fred Deutsch for his years of pro life dedication and leadership.
It’s very understandable that Lee is lashing out wildly after coordinating a massively expensive attempt to remain relevant in the legislature and being soundly refuted by the Republican voters of this state.
You’re a hack, Doug. Resign. Lee’s article above puts it mildly. There are those of us who know the whole truth and all the details of the back door dirty dealings, maybe we should make those public too!
You and SDRL have told inexcusable lies about good people. I think it’s high time we start telling the TRUTH about you and the rest of the Board and PAC board.
Resign, before none of you can show your faces in public.
What secret scoring method was used then Doug to receive SD RTL funds?
It would appear your group is going to have a hard time staying relevant when you jettison loyal warriors to the cause.
Doug a few problems with your story.
You can’t really claim that Dale has nothing to do with the pac, since he is one of its largest donors. In the campaign finance report before this one, he donated another $1100 of what was most recently spent on candidates.
Since you’re declaring that you were one of the decision makers, if voting with SDRTL 100% across 2 years was insufficient to not be on your hit list, what was the criteria that was used instead that caused SDRTL to turn on many of its supporters like a pack of rabid dogs?
Doug, how are you on the board and yet so misinformed? The tabled bill did NOT create a mental health exception. Maybe you know that and are just outright lying to cover your tracks. The bill was drafted with SDRTL by our side the whole time until they decided to play shenanigans with the lives of women. SDRTL chose power over good policy this primary.
I was under the impression SDRTL supported the bill until they found out Noem did not.
Guess what now though? With your miniature night of the long knives, who will support you but the loonie fringe? With the Abortion Amendment yes trouncing the no votes, who that is undivided would believe your messaging?
Doug,
You should probably read the bill that was tabled.
The language was crafted with SDRTL AND Jon Hansen with multiple modifications along the way. The organization was supportive and excited to work through the drafting with a last minute political pull of support.
The bill was drafted the same as the definition that had been in statute for the last 30 years. The only modification was the bill specifically stated PHYSICAL health. It was in fact more stringent than the same language that had been in place for the past 30 years. If it was such an issue, why didn’t you try to change it over the past three decades?
I am incredibly disappointed that the very organizations that are supposed to help keep our state prolife have done more damage to the cause than good. The general public sees this and thinks we, as pro lifers and republicans, are unreasonable. I hope we will see new leaders emerge with the actual goal of protecting babies (and children and women) vs playing politics and trying to advance certain individuals.
If you want to do advance certain individuals, open up a PAC and tell donors how you are using the funds.
Doug, you have taken the side of the Deadbeat Dad Caucus and told me once that child support orders are not “fair.”
To claim you are pro-life but you don’t believe fathers should be required to support their children must bring on some serious cognitive dissonance in your head.
How are women to be encouraged to carry unplanned pregnancies to term if the fathers aren’t required to provide for them?
“ It’s very understandable that Lee is lashing out wildly after coordinating a massively expensive attempt to remain relevant in the legislature and being soundly refuted by the Republican voters of this state.”
As a board member, shouldn’t you avoid gratuitous attacks on fellow pro lifers? This is kind of the point of Lee’s article.
thanks sir for calling out the major self-serving hypocrisy in the freedom caucus.
🍿
Lay with snakes expect to get bit.
What about Family Voice/Family Heritage Alliance they were joined at the hip with the Doeden/Dennert Dumpsterfire Diver Wackadoodles.
Talk about hypocrisy!
Aberdeen seems to have a solid gripp on the conservatives.
The Dobbs decision was when the dog caught the bus, and for perhaps the first time in U.S. history the constitutional rights of women have been diminished rather than expanded. In states like South Dakota those rights have been entirely confiscated — primarily by the male politicians with zero medical training who are at each other’s throats in Pierre and on this forum in the race to exert the most fanatical control over women and their health care options during the most difficult and excruciating circumstances of their lives.
No exceptions for age, rape, incest, fetal viability or other complications that fall short of certain death for the mother. Mostly older male politicians are severely out of touch with the women of childbearing age that they have dedicated their lives to controlling. Thus far since Dobbs they have lost EVERY reproductive rights ballot measure in red states across our great country.
Recent polling suggests that y’all on this forum (as you slit each others’ throats in a desperate race to achieve a Handmaid’s Tale of dystopian perfection) will also lose this November when actual people who must live in your perfect dystopia will make their voices heard at the ballot box.
The Southern Baptist Convention recently voted to oppose the use of IVF (not long after re-iterating their ban on female pastors and removing female pastors who had been quietly “tolerated” for the past few years). How’s that for being out of touch with female voters? Clarence Thomas wants to “reconsider” the Supreme Court decision making free access to contraception a constitutional right.
Behold the new horizons in your expanding race to the dystopian bottom. Will IVF and contraception soon become the new battle fronts in your civil war over “pro-life” purity? Stay tuned. Needless to say, women of chilbearing age and the men who love them will express their views clearly in the voting booth.
Just as your unblemished pro-life position allows for the “exception” of capital punishment, perhaps you should reconsider reasonable exceptions and the excruciating circumstances that occur in many women’s reproductive lives. Consider the common-sense compromise approved by voters in Ireland (over 80% Catholic) in a national referendum after years of living under a draconian ban imposed by politicians in collaboration with the Catholic Church.
Much like most of you non-scientists proudly deny and ignore the consensus of climate scientists, you also proudly deny and ignore the consensus of the most highly qualified medical scientists: the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The following is copied from their website:
ABOG joins that collective voice of our specialty, board-certified diplomates, and the people we serve to reiterate its commitment that comprehensive family planning including abortion are essential to the practice of OB GYN, the patients that place their trust in us, and public health of our country.
The patient-physician relationship has been strained as patients and physicians struggle to access and deliver evidence-based care. Pregnant patients have been denied timely and vital care until they develop severe, life-threatening complications that would have been prevented by early interventions. Patients must trust that their physicians can and will provide critical health care without legislative interference in personal decision making.
https://www.abog.org/about-abog/news-announcements/2023/06/27/dobbs-vs.-jackson-women-s-health-organization-anniversary-statement#:~:text=ABOG%20joins%20that%20collective%20voice,public%20health%20of%20our%20country.
Anonymous, you need to stop drinking the Libtard kool-aid, and listen to women who have had abortions tell their stories about how their “choice” wasn’t theirs, it was made for them by their fathers, husbands and boyfriends, or they felt they had no other options because they lacked a support system. Nobody told them there was help available. Women who have had abortions never get over it, they think about those children for the rest of their lives. And when they get to their fifties, the men they were trying to please are long gone, the careers they thought would be so rewarding are just jobs, they are counting the days till retirement, and the babies they sacrificed would be grown adults. I still think about the babies I miscarried, as most women who have lost babies do. For the women who did this to themselves deliberately, the regret is terrible. Abortion abuses women, it doesn’t help them.
And that’s just what it does to the women. It also deprives the unborn children of their constitutional right to live. Someday abortion will be as repugnant as slavery, and you will be on the wrong side of history.
In the meantime, I would like to see the state adopt a compromise that unborn children be considered as 3/5ths human, just to make the point.
Thanks to Deadbeat Dads? The legislators that advocate for Deadbeat Dads and those that financially back them?
yes, Deadbeat Dads are a problem for the pro-life movement. We cannot tell women they should keep their babies at the same time telling men they should not have to support them. How Deadbeat Dads get to count themselves as being pro-life is a mystery.
And lessen South Dakota’s legislative power at the federal level even more? Genius plan, Anne. You really thought that through.
since unborn children are currently non-existent in the census, numbering them as 3/5ths human would increase our numbers.
Not relative to other states who, believe it or not, also have women who get pregnant. More populous states would have greater numbers of pregnant women. You wanna try again?
how about you tell me how SD could have less than one Congressman?
stop being stupid
And everyone else’s numbers would not increase? How does that not negatively impact our relative voting power, idiot? Stop being stupid indeed, moron.
do you really think blue states would go along with a 3/5ths compromise? Their heads would explode
anonymous @ 9:51, your head is exploding just thinking about a 3/5ths compromise, because “3/5ths human” is not a tenet of anybody’s religion, and it drives the pro-life cause right back into the realm of civil rights, where it belongs. And you can’t stand the thought
SDRTL is clearly nothing but the Jon Hansen fan club now.
Time to stop giving them money.
I am starting to see a trend here. “misinformation, 1/2 truths, etc,” Funny thing at the end of the day that’s called ” LYING.” This group of freedom caucus members have refined the art of that. This only weakens the Republican Party, and will make room for the Dems to fill some of these seats. For example Voita race down by winner all it would take is a Billy Sutton style Dem to run and she would be beat easily. The lies will come out and her CULT following ways do not align with the majority of South Dakotans. The other district is 28A, if say a Oren Lesmeister runs that Travis fella would be beat. This group will lie to get their way, an eventually the voters will catch onto it.
It’s 28B but I get your point. And a moderate democrat would have my vote over that absolute idiot Ismay.
They don’t want to take the time to work and fundraise to build their own parties being Libertarian and Constitutional Party activists. It is much easier to coordinate, plot, infiltrate and take over the Republican Party. Same thing happened to the Democrat Party mostly in blue states and their metro areas but it is far and I stress far worse in the what used to be called Republican Party. At the beginning they will often hide their positions and come across with aligning with basic principles so they blend in to secure key positions. As they secure power that is when you see their far extreme positions emerge and they go on the full offensive to lie and defame solid policy and productive elected officials in the party. Purging and purification will occur by these extremists. Fundraising will plummet and so will votes since they scare the hell out of voters.
Lies and half truths – that’s deadbeat, chamberhopper Board Member Al Novstrup’s o ly campaign method. Fits the bill. SDRL has lost all credibility thanks to power hungry tiny men like Novstrup
That’s not the same district Billy used to run in.
of course it’s half truths. Look at the ratings. Pischke, the most notorious Deadbeat Dad, gets a 100% rating from SDRTL, which only lends credence to the Pro-abortion claim that Pro-Lifers don’t care about the children after they are born.
Their ratings are a load of crap and have been for a long time.
Just another reason in a long, long, list to never trust anyone that wants to focus on bringing their Religion into Politics.
Religion enters politics when we acknowledge we were all endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights.
Without a Creator, none of us have any unalienable rights, so it’s kind of important.
That being said, someday abortion will be as repugnant as slavery, and when future generations ask how it was ever allowed, some of us can proudly say “we were the ones who stopped it.”
The Republican Party ended slavery, it’s time to end abortion too.
You’re delusional Anne and you can’t be trusted either because you just can’t fathom people thinking logically rather than having an entity floating above your head influencing your decisions. Be religious, fine, but religion has no place in politics and if churches want in, start paying taxes. Let me guess, you’re part of the Catholic Diocese?
no I am not a Catholic. To me, the abortion issue is a civil rights issue, not a religious one.
you want to argue logically? Ok
Replace Schrodinger’s cat with an unborn child.
Is the child dead or alive while inside the “box?”
If not alive before birth, is the child dead? Is death reversible?
or maybe you think the child isn’t human? He’s a cat, until the moment of birth, and then suddenly, he’s human?
Discuss.
Define unborn child.
If you want to use logic in this discussion, it has already happened. The definition of life, viability, etc. was all cited in Roe and Casey. Viability and scientific consensus of principles of life were very logical conclusions.
In your analogy, most of us would not consider a fertilized egg “life”. At what point does life start? The same point all other life starts, which is the same points we would accept finding life on Mars, despite this being a recent right wing argument. It is pretty simple to follow, and no quantum physics theories to try and apply.
The Founding Fathers would argue strongly against that viewpoint though. The 30 Years War, Huguenot Massacres, Salem Witch Trials, and the English Civil Wars were still recent history at that point and proved that however well-intended, preferential treatment of differing Religious beliefs by the state or society always tends to end horribly. That is why we have the 1st Amendment guaranteeing protection of belief, and why State-Church separation has been a cornerstone of the Republic.
and your people basically all got beat! You are the stain on the party at the end of the day.
Who is “your” people? I thought it was the Republican party? What designates “your” people and “our” people? Idealogy outside of being pro-life? You missed the point of Lee’s write up. SDRTL and the Life Defense Fund are now Jon Hansen for AG PACs. When the pro-abortion ballot measure passes, these groups and Jon will live with that guilt knowing they did literally nothing but use pro-life donations to promote their own political standings in the party. But……then they will be able to keep the “pro-life” battle going won’t they? Donations will continue to roll in. Jon Hansen has nothing to talk about if he doesn’t have abortion to fight because he is a poor leader whom no-one with a brain will follow.
This is an argument that did not need to happen when defeating the pro-abortion amendment needs to be first priority. This is not the time to attack SD Pro-Life groups. This can be handled after the fall election Think about it Lee. .
If SDRTL didn’t want to catch flak for their BS they shouldn’t have pulled the BS in the first place. They have only themselves to blame for Amendment G passing. Their recalcitrant behavior to any proposed legislation that would’ve removed some of the avenues of attack used by Amendment G supporters is coming home to roost.
How dare you Lee, calling out the truth. Let this group continue with their lies through November and continue to suck in funds to promote – nothing but power grabs. Anon 10:59, Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and a stone will come back on him who starts it rolling.
That was part of his point. Defeating the amendment needed to be first priority, not spending that money on trying to get a group of extremists elected over proven pro-life legislators. It’s become a pro-freedom caucus group, not a pro-life group. Because of its dishonesty, it has now hurt the movement and disillusioned the supporters. This needed to be called out immediately, so that people can stop giving money to this group of fraudsters and start focusing on defeating the amendment. Hopefully, someone with pure motives and intent will step up and provide a place to donate that will actually use the money for which it is intended.
I guess it depends on your definition of freedom/Freedom. Because true freedom would mean legal abortion. SD Freedom means…not that.
so you are okay with people being able to kill their problematic family members with impunity? Obnoxious spouses, defiant teenagers, senile grandparents, as well?
That kind of true freedom?
These kinds of arguments are why the amendment will pass this fall.
The argument needed to be made now because it just happened. Waiting 6 months would only sweep it under the rug, and if he did wait, then you’d bring asking why he is complaining about something from so long ago. SDRTL is making unforced errors that only weaken its position to combat the terrible abortion amendment. New leadership on the board and the PAC is needed, or maybe a new organization needs to take up the fight.
There’s a lot of really solid legislators and good people that just got relegated to the sidelines by this mob of radicals. I’d be interested to see what they could do if they teamed up.
The party tried sticking its head in the sand with Trump and look how that worked out. Ignoring bad things for “the greater good” is a bad way to live life and a bad way to win in politics.
We as South Dakotans, especially ‘true’ Republican South Dakotans, need to open our eyes to see that these ‘pro-life’ candidates who attack GOOD, effective candidates for the legislature are frauds. SDRTL has always had issues and now it’s at least being exposed. How fraudulent to use money like this! SD Protecting Kids to fight legalizing MJ did the same thing only MORE dollars were spent. Shameful! This is good information by Lee Schoenbeck. Take note of who these people are who beat out legislators who actually have integrity. They are destroying SDRTL, our Republican Party, and soon our great state of SD. These so called Republicans who just showed up the last couple of years to get involved in politics need to go, and common sense Republicans who can be trusted need to start ‘showing up’ before we lose our state to idiots. Most of these people who surfaced into politics these last couple of years need to “GO BACK INTO YOUR HOLE”!
Stopping abortion used to be the cause and SDRTL was the instrument to advance the cause.
Now the cause the promotion of a certain politicos and SDRTL is the instrument to support those certain politicos.
Just like the NRA, eh?
I remember when the NRA rating was one of the only legislative ratings that meant something to me. Then they threw in campaign finance reform as one of the things that they included in their scorecard. At that point rating fell to meaningless just like the rest of the scorecards.
SDRTL gave money to who they thought was most in line with their mission. You assume this is not what the majority of their contributors want. Seems to me Lee thinks his axe to grind is more important than defeating the Pro-abortion amendment. No doubt the timing of this does more harm than good.
Imagine someone telling you that they agree/score you with 100% approval, only to have them turn around and try and get you primaried. With friends like that, who needs enemies? This is completely on the SDRTL, waiting to publish their dubious rationale only lets destructive and incompetent leadership of a large pro-life org remain in power. Here’s to the RTLs leadership being thrown out.
Exactly. Friendship and loyalty go both ways. SDRTL has sacrificed their long-earned reputation and integrity to stand with those who stood with them through thick and thin.
Regarding the comment “SDRTL gave money to who they thought was most in line with their mission,” their only mission is to reduce abortions through legislation, courts AND changing the hearts and minds of those who consider abortion or those who might coerce abortions for their own ends. Crapping on friends is no way to serve their mission.
All this in house fighting, big deal. two PAC’s going against each other is not so bad. Both seemingly are Pro-Lifers, but one is supporting new candidates, the grassroots movement of of getting fresh blood into the Legislature, while the other is supporting the more established, years of service candidates. No Big deal. Both can be pro-lifers, but support a different set of candidates. There is a new, class of people rising to the top, and that is great for the State.
Actually there is an old slate of legislators, swamp dwellers, who couldn’t win leadership spots the traditional way, so they had to lie to the voters to get new legislators in who will vote them to the top. Swamp dwellers like Jon Hansen, Tom pischke, Spencer gosch, Carl Perry, taffy Howard….it isn’t enough to be in Pierre and pass no bills and be mocked. They want to stand on their high swamp mound and demand to be heard. They want to undo things like public education and women’s right to birth control. Only then will they feel the power they haven’t gotten a chance to feel – governance.
No! They are extremists and whether they are on the left and in this case the far right they are disastrous for states ending up with severe short and long term legacy costs. They are completely oblivious to the collateral damage and unintended consequences and/or simply don’t care with pushing their extreme agendas. Some are cunning, manipulative and know what they are doing and some are dumber than a rock.
Lee and Pierre swamp rats are still licking their wounds from the primary! They were rejected by South Dakotans. Just excuses and finger pointing for them now.
Rejected by 17% of the Republicans that voted. Hardly a message sent there. This is about SDRTL also being part of the swamp.
Apparently the other percentage rejected them as they didn’t get out and vote for them keep the excuses coming. The swamp was defeated
Well, they also rejected you as they didn’t care enough to vote for your band of room temp-iqs.
and if the apathetic 83% of registered Republicans decide to skip the general election?
Rejected by 51% of 17% in some cases, your mileage may vary.
Lee led the agenda that has seen the house and senate face complete upheaval after this election.
He’s pointing the finger right now so no one is pointing it at his leadership.
Mr. Schoenbeck, the elder, got all of your all’s goats.
Very entertaining.
Face some hard truths: The SDGOP had devolved into a complete cesspool of its own making. While the organization deserves everything it’s wrought upon itself, the citizenry of SD deserves far better.
It is good to see all the turmoil in the SDGOP.. Hopefully next election cycle we examine why we send Senators and representative that vote for all the spending bills they see.
Isn’t it interesting that the people most concerned with “draining the swamp” are perfectly okay with misappropriating/diverting donors’ funds to do it?
Isn’t it interesting that the people most insistent that women keep their babies are also the most insistent that men not have to support them?
Isn’t it interesting that the people who believe the only thing that changes at the moment of birth is the onset of pulmonary function, are the ones accused of imposing a religious belief on people who believe that prior to birth, we were all dead cats, and were magically turned into living human beings, and THAT is science, not religion?
Orwell was off by only 40 years…..
Curious who will be in leadership positions given the results of this primary leading to a major shakeup in the legislature.
Best Case Scenario?
Worst Case Scenario?
I see an anti-democratic challenge to the measure has already happened. Imagine, allowing people to have a choice in their healthcare decisions themselves, and not letting you make that decision for them! This must stop, obviously, you know better for them than they do. This isn’t the type of freedom the Queen was meaning.
Should we bypass the FDA and start voting with ballot measures on future medicines we approves of one by one?
The answer is obviously no, the state legislature can, and will, do that. Just like the devil’s lettuce, it will be stopped. I heard people who use marijuana are happier in life and purchase less things since they are not trying to buy happiness through material possessions. So now, this freedom is hurting job creators, it must be stopped or we will need Trump to offer stimulus to the job creators.
Stop saying Pro Abortion. It’s Pro Choice and it is not the same thing. Miscarriage happens OFTEN and a woman suffering a miscarriage should be able to have proper medical care without getting a terrible infection before doctors can intervene and prove the pregnancy isn’t viable. That is between a woman and her doctor. Not the legislature deciding when she needs medical care. Because of your unwillingness to compromise and recognize medical interventions are needed we now have this bill that is going to pass and you have no one to blame but yourself. We don’t fund foster care properly, adoption costs are out of reach for many and single mothers are ridiculed and looked down upon when the fathers walk away and claim they can’t pay child support. Daycare has become unaffordable. We are in a serious crisis in this country and you want to legislate morality to people who are in their own family crisis medically or personally trying to make the best decision they can for their circumstances that you know nothing about.
Anti-Choice people don’t care about any of that, they want to feel morally superior. Until their family is affected then they’ll be off to Minnesota quicker than you can say lutefisk.
Exactly… I know this to be a fact. The moral majority until it’s someone in their family.
Label it however you wish to soothe your conscience. Here is a newsflash for you: treating a miscarriage is NOT abortion and is completely legal in South Dakota, and has been for decades. There are no gray areas or exceptions in the law when it comes to miscarriage and anyone who claims there are is either sorely misinformed or a liar. I suggest you find more believable lies to spread so to legitimize your need to justify killing the innocent. Until you start advocating to also kill other living human beings who cause any sort of inconvenience, your argument is useless.
Conflating miscarriage and the discussion of abortion is about the most asinine link I’ve ever seen. It took work to continue reading to your legitimate issues regarding daycare, child support, and adoption which need to be addressed and discussed, even if these matters don’t justify killing a human being.
You need to read more then because stories like this are coming from many states that have implemented anti-choice.
Even Erin Tobin said of this silly video being made, “there will not be specific (pregnancy complication) circumstances in this video. That’s the problem with health care, is that there are so many different circumstances that you have to allow doctors discretion.”
My point exactly. If you think women suffering miscarriages either early or late term or having pregnancy complications late term resulting in a non viable birth are not being sent home without receiving immediate treatment you’re delusional. It’s happening all over this country because medical staff doesn’t know what’s legally permitted for treatment any longer. Drs need to be able to treat these women without fear of retribution from some poorly worded law. No woman should have to go to the ER multiple times during a miscarriage because a D&C can’t be performed until she’s septic or have tests and bloodwork run numerous times to prove she’s finally sick enough for the procedure. No exceptions means this amendment is what you end up with. And this is happening since the repeal of Roe v Wade. It’s an unintended consequence but a consequence nonetheless.
You are a moron. By definition, a miscarriage is a spontaneous natural abortion whereby the baby is already dead. There is absolutely no law in the US where this woman can’t get the care she needs. Period.
And, any Doctor or hospital that is confused can get clarity in a second. Period.
This fear mongering and it is lying.
From Dictionary: Miscarriage: The spontaneous, premature expulsion of a nonviable embryo or fetus from the uterus.
Don’t take it from us morons, here’s a doctor saying it. Is she a moron too? https://southdakotasearchlight.com/2023/05/13/sd-physicians-trapped-abortion-ban-trigger-law-health-life-mother-death/
Yes
Oooh look out, we got an edge-lord who thinks they know more than a medical professional.
Ooooh nice one, except, the comment to which you are replying was written by a physician. Now, it is true that not all medical professionals have the same level of knowledge, anyone who has gotten through medical school and cannot determine the difference between life or death circumstances is indeed a moron.
Dale— I strongly encourage you to resign now. The fundraising for Right to Life will plummet as a result of this scandal, and rather than take responsibility, the board will blame you. If you stay, you’ll find in a year that they’ll throw you under the bus. Meanwhile, in staying, you’ll take on the stain of scandal as people will see it as an implied approval of Right to Life’s actions. You’ll have a very hard time landing on your feet after that. Right now, people are basically giving you a pass on this— they’re not throwing knives at you. At least not yet. Get out now while you can!
I just have to say, I have great manly admiration for Mr. Schoenbeck, who by all accounts and supported by his own picture is still one handsome devil. How do we get him to get his kid off the donkey laughing blog radio show?
I am as disgusted with those who stand behind their position by signing “anonymous” as I am with SDRTL, LDF, and Protecting SD Kids mismanagement woes.