For some time I’ve been meaning to write about Leslee Unruh who runs the tax-exempt National Abstinence Clearing House (aka Abstinence is the Only Answer Club) and the Alpha Center CPC located in Sioux City, SD.
I just haven’t had the time nor the stomach to do it. (Do I really want write about a woman who teaches that masturbation is the gateway to “sexual addiction” and that emergency contraception causes infertility?) Luckily, somebody has done my work (and more!) for me: repro rights blogger “moiv,” whose research and writing skills I’ve admired since she wrote about shennighans in Ohio a few months ago. I don’t intend to re-write or re-hash moiv’s blog here. You need to read it yourself, but here’s a snippet from Inside Leslee Unruh to whet your appetite:
Local observers have taken note of Unruh’s political connections since 1987, when she paid a nominal fine and walked out into the sunshine after pleading nolo contendere to five misdemeanors, instead of facing a much more severe sentence for ten other misdemeanors and multiple felonies with which she was also charged.
The center was fined $500 in 1987 after pleading no contest to five misdemeanor charges of unlicensed adoption and foster care practices. That was part of a plea bargain in which 19 charges, including four felonies, were dropped.
Unruh said at the time: “I so much believe in this. Can I start compromising now? I’m not guilty of anything. If saving babies is against the law, then I’m guilty.”
Nice dodge, but “saving babies” isn’t against the law. However, leaning on teenagers to hand over their babies for money is still a crime, even in South Dakota.
Leslie Unruh is not some obscure crackpot. She is a key player in the total abortion ban in South Dakota;. She has friends in high places. Like George W. Bush. And she and her fellow travelers get millions of tax dollars to spread their bullshit over the country and on you and your kids.
For more on Unruh and her fellow travelers:
Planned Parenthood: Who is Leslee Unruh
Village Voice, An Orgy of Abstinence, August 1-7, 2001
Washington Monthly, Pork for Prudes, September 2002
And for your inner wonk:
SIECUS: A Brief Explanation of Federal Abstinence-Until-Marriage Funding
I saw an associated press article a couple of days ago that said that the “abstinence only” crowd wants to expand their program to include people up to age 29.I am wondering when they are going to start talking about ‘forced celibacy’..for life…the Catholic Church calls that a ‘special gift’….. for sure…
Hell, it is like the Middle Ages..who knows how far it will go..remember the story of Heloise and Abelard…
The Abstinenece Only Crowd…..some of the finest minds of the 13th Century
The 13th century..those were the days…..eunuchs…..castrati…
Some very fine sexual choices in those days.
kitta: “The 13th century..those were the days…..eunuchs…..castrati…”
Probably a Santorum or two in there somewhere too.
No doubt…with all of the Compassionate Conservatives of the Middle Ages.
kitta: “No doubt…with all of the Compassionate Conservatives of the Middle Ages.”
It’s been a trip, hasn’t it?
Compassionate Conservatism, Christian Dominionism, the national electronic Potemkin Village, Big Brother, Little Lord Ponchatrain, the National Abstinence Clearinghouse mob…..I could go on and on.
What a ride, especially for us members of the reality based community.
Daylight in six days, baybee!!
Next thing you know, the federal government will be running a marriage service for people under the age of 29 so that they can reproduce while them eggs are still fresh.
kitta:”The 13th century..those were the days…..eunuchs…..castrati…”
In addition to the Santorums, it looks like we now have to add a
Haggard or two to your list.
Lady needs to get invited to a passion party, and not one where they show that icky violent movie in Aramaic – you know, the kind where they sell vibrators and flavored massage oils.
kidnap,
us members of the reality based community;
The Left Behind (LOL)
kitta: “The Left Behind (LOL)”
We’re the left behinds and tonight, more than ever, they are the right behinds.
This woman looks horrifying. This lady is probably kinkier than all of us combined. She makes you want to run screaming away.
No more horrifying pictures. My family and I don’t need nightmares
kidnap:
“they are the right behinds”
Haggard likes it either way.
kitta:”Haggard likes it either way.”
It’s only gay if you’re a bottom.
ride ’em cowboy..
kitta:”ride ’em cowboy.. “
I shouldn’t be enjoying the schadenfreude. But, I am.
kidnap,
enjoy the guilt
I am from South Dakota and enjoyed your post on Ms Unruh. Just for the record it is Sioux Falls, SD and not Sioux City. Souix City is in Iowa and would have been the closest clinic to SD had the ban passed.
I go WAY back with Leslee Unruh! She doesn’t believe in condoms because by the time her date bought them, she already had her feet sticking out of the window of his car! Her dad is the town drunk and her mom had 5 kids by him then made him have a vasectomy. She still had another by her 2nd husband! Leslee’s mom moved to Midland, TX to get away from the embarrassment of raising such a nut! She was raised to hate Catholicism but, obviously, the birth control part rubbed off on her, didn’t it? If she “loves babies” so much, why does she want to ban birth control and make so many millions of babies wards of foster homes, usually ending up abused sexually and otherwise. How many of these babies is SHE supporting with her chiropractor husband’s fortune? How long is she going to transfer the guilt for her mom’s first pregnancy, which was out of wedlock, and her own abortion on to innocent girls who want to start over without a child to raise? By the way, her cousin is Shawn Bonrud, a registered sex offender. Why doesn’t she spend her time reforming HIM!!