Leslee Unruh has been an advocate for family values for more than a decade. She 's the founder of The Abstinence Clearinghouse — a non-profit educational organization dedicated to providing "a central location where character, relationship and abstinence programs, curricula, speakers and materials could be accessed."

But life experiences moved her toward an additional calling — to educate women and men about the reality of abortion — how it hurts women and kills a human life. Now working with VoteYesForLife.com, Unruh is fighting for the preborn.

South Dakota lawmakers passed a law to ban the procedure, and Gov. Mike Rounds signed it into law in March. The only exception is if the life of the mother is in jeopardy.

Rather than taking the usual route of a court challenge, abortion backers chose to place the fate of the law on the fall ballot.

If the ban holds, it will surely then be challenged in court and may ultimately end up in the U.S. Supreme Court in a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that legalized abortion.

CitizenLink spoke with Unruh about the days and years that led her to fight for the preborn and about her heart for reaching the abortion industry with the message of the cross.

Q. Leslee, tell our readers a little bit about yourself. What brought you to this place of fighting for the preborn?

A. Well, I’m a post-abortive woman, and I suffered for a lot of years with shame. I felt like there was really nowhere to go. You don’t want to go to the church, because if you go to the church you feel like there’ll be shame, and you’ll hear things you can’t accept, you can’t handle. So you stuff it. And I did stuff it for a lot of years.

But I was finally able to go to the cross.

It’s a simple thing that happened. I was sitting alone one day and my mom called me and said, 'Why don’t you listen to Focus on the Family – they’re having someone on who’s talking about abortion.'

Dr. Dobson made the comment that day about offering a cold cup of water and meeting people where they're at and just accepting them and not judging them on the past, but pointing them to the cross.

That was the beginning of a journey back. There was a hope put in my heart that day, and that’s the only way you can grow is not to despair — but to hope.

For the first time in America, post-abortive women are not being dismissed, we’re being heard.

How long ago was it that you had your abortion?

I was in my late 20s, and it was between my third child and my fourth child. It was the most painful time in my life, and it was a time of making a decision based on a lot of rhetoric that you hear: “It’s your body, it’s your choice, you can make the decision and it’s legal.” And so many women make that decision not being informed and later wake up, and it’s a nightmare.

In the last few years you helped bring about legislation that banned most abortions in your state. Tell me about what you’ve been doing?

I simply went as a woman to testify.

A few years ago, there was a very courageous legislator that decided that he was going to put a bill in, and I was one of the women to testify. And I stood in line with the other women and stayed there and I helped.

We worked to pass so many laws over the years that were incremental in approach.

Then we thought, “Well, there should be a study – let’s study abortion, if they won’t let us pass anymore laws.”

Then last year there was a day when I was leaving my office.

We have a memorial garden outside of the office because it was previously a pregnancy center turned into The National Abstinence Clearinghouse. The new pregnancy center had purchased an abortion clinic. And I just looked out my window and saw this woman just sitting on a bench and just weeping. And I felt like I should go out and hug her, but it’s a private place and we’ve always just let people grieve there — because sometimes they come on the death date or the due date of when their child would’ve come into this world and didn’t.

So I left to go and was going to my car and I was really struggling because my husband had been encouraging me — wanting me to go to the South Dakota Legislature and put the bill back it.

And I met this young woman — she was going to her car at the same time and she was very distraught. And she said, “I can’t live with myself anymore. I can’t forget.” And then in just a panicked way she said, “Why doesn’t somebody do something?” And I just kept thinking, “That means me. I have to do something.”

God can use one person. Then he grew so many people — we have an army of people in South Dakota right now, people who care about the women and who care about the unborn children. We are a team — no one person could’ve done what has happened. I was simply one who was obedient — because after that there are so many heroes of this legislation, so many groups that have come along side, so many times it was a turning point it could have gone one way or the other and there was another one person that made the difference.

The day of the vote, I walked outside, got on my knees in a quiet little closet and I just wept and said, “God, this is You; You’re here! This is your time!”

South Dakota is now poised to allow voters to decide if the abortion ban will stand. But this is proving to have national implications, as well.

Well, South Dakota has been put in what I believe is "for such a time as this."

I didn’t go to the Legislature because I was thinking about overturning Roe v. Wade. I simply wanted to do something in my own state.

But I will tell you, it’s given the whole country hope. There are legislators calling from all over the country saying, “I’m going to put that same law in my legislature — if you can do it, we can do it.”

I believe that our Supreme Court judges are not political hacks, but they’re men who are going to look at the laws of 33 years ago, and they are going to say that so much has changed. We now have DNA. We now have affidavits that say abortion hurts women. We have a separate unique human being. There is scientific research that proves life begins at conception.

So I believe that when South Dakota gets the chance to give these arguments, we are going to be heard, and those who cannot speak for themselves will finally be heard. And their mothers will not have to feel the shame of them any longer.

A former abortionist has come forward to lend her voice to the fight to save the preborn. What can you tell me about Patti Giebink?

Oh boy, she is a wonderful, beautiful person.

I knew Patti many years ago when she, in fact, was my doctor. I, of course, at that time was living with the guilt — a lot of shame in my life; I’d had the abortion. She wasn’t the doctor that did the abortion, but she was a doctor that was still doing abortions.

I called her one day and said, "I can’t come there anymore."

It’s interesting — we’ve recently had a conversation about how she remembers that day. It's an example of loving people — loving those who provide and do abortions. They want someone to care about them — they want someone to tell them it’s not right.

She came just a few days ago to the campaign office. That day a group of women called Alive was here — women who’ve had unplanned pregnancies and many of those women had had abortions. And she had done the abortions.

She walked into the room, and I’ll tell you — at that moment it didn’t even matter if we won or lost because I knew right then, in that moment, we had won something so big. I looked into the faces of those women as they looked at the doctor that had aborted their children and one woman said, “I forgive you.” She didn’t speak it out very loud, but it was so amazing to see what only God could do knitting these hearts together. And Patti said, “When I get to heaven, I know I will see those children, and I know, because of the cross, they, too, have forgiven me.”

The redemption that God offers women who’ve had an abortion and the redemption that God can offer those who are in the abortion industry is absolutely breathtaking.

I know that Patti struggled with the decision to bring her story to the spotlight. What led her to tell her story?

There is a journey that she’s taken, but I believe that she said, “I’m just being obedient.” The same thing I’m saying. I’m nobody special, I’m just obedient, that’s all.

A doctor and his wife had called her and asked her if she would stand with other pro-life physicians to do an ad and she said "Yes."

And now she is reaching out to those that hurt. Patti, who has been forgiven much, wants to give. Hurting people hurt people. It’s time to heal the abortion industry in our land and have the people in the clinics step out and also be healed.

There’s times when God lays things on all of us — He just expects us to stand and be obedient. And God laid it on her heart that she needed to be obedient to what she was asking her.

What is the message that people should understand from what has occurred in South Dakota?

I think that so often it is easy to judge those in the abortion industry and to even have hate. I believe God wants to heal the abortion industry. He loves them as much as he loves us. And they need to be set free.

I think that has to happen in our own hearts first before God can bring them out. He wants to bring them out but he needs us to love them first.

Leslee, leave us with a last thought as the nation prepares for Election Day.

I think the most important thing is what a privilege it is to be able to vote. What a great privilege it is to stand up and tell our stories and talk to our neighbors and to be able to have an impact — not just South Dakota, but the whole nation.

I think that it's important for people to not despair, but always to offer hope and that in this legislation and in this process of this vote that is taking place in South Dakota, it has started something — not ended — but started something new in America. Individuals can stand up from a state and be counted. That’s what’s great about America. I’m an American, an unborn child is an American and we can make a difference together.

(Paid for and authorized by Focus on the Family Action, 8605 Explorer Dr., Colorado Springs, CO 80920)