Mission Statement

South Dakota Right to Life (SDRTL) is a non-profit public service organization. SDRTL's primary purpose is to educate through the presentation of detailed and factual information about fetal development, abortion, alternatives to abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, and related issues, upon which individuals and the general public may make informed decisions.

The legal protection of the right to life of innocent human beings is the basic issue upon which all other issues of human rights and justice depend. It is the pivotal human rights issue today, because once we abandon the basic democratic principle of equality - that ALL human beings deserve the protection of the law no matter what their size, their age or their degree of dependency - then the rights of all of us are less secure.

Although the current controversy concerning the right to life focuses on the unborn, decisions that society makes regarding abortion will have grave implications for the future - influencing society's acceptance of infanticide, euthanasia and other related bioethical issues.

SDRTL believes that society's duty to those women whose pregnancies are complicated by medical, psychological, social or economic factors is to protect both mother and child by treating the complication and not by destroying the child. Therefore, we are working for alternatives to abortion and humane solutions to the problems of women who seek abortion.

SDRTL recognizes that there are complex problems in caring for handicapped newborns and persons who are aged and infirmed, but we believe that problems must be solved with respect for the lives, individual rights and dignity of all human beings, especially those too young, too old or too physically ill or handicapped to defend themselves.

Members of SDRTL are active in the pro-life movement within South Dakota. We come from many different social, economic, racial, religious, age and political backgrounds, and we are bound together by a common dedication to protecting all human life. Our cause is to foster and protect society's traditional respect for life by supporting the civil and human rights of the unborn, the defenseless, the aged, the disadvantaged, and all human life.