Port: North Dakota pro-life group says they’re under attack by Satan

MINOT, N.D. — The day after a news report indicated that North Dakota Right to Life’s entire staff had departed, the group’s president issued a statement denouncing “lies and misinformation being spread only create division and confusion.”

A report from KFYR’s Joel Crane

indicated that, after what was a notably successful legislative session for the group and immediately after a high-profile event

with right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk,

the organization’s board voted not to renew the contracts of most of its staff.

The remaining two members, executive director McKenzie McCoy and assistant director Cionda Holter, whose contracts were reportedly renewed on a month-to-month basis, then resigned, apparently leaving the group without any staff at all.

“It’s just sad to have it all kind of, just basically, just stopped. It’s just sad,” McCoy told Porter.

But Lancer Labar, the group’s president, issued a statement refuting, though not naming, the KFYR report.

“Satan himself has made every possible effort over the past several years to take down this organization. As President, I have done and continue to do everything in my power to ensure that he fails,” he wrote.

“We hear rumors that our staff has been terminated, but this also is not true. Most recently, the staff we have are all under contract and are not regular employees of the organization,” he continued. “The current situation we are dealing with is purely due to contract negotiations and the need to have our qualified budget committee verify our cash flow prior to renewing any contracts or hiring any additional staff.”

Labar also disputed “rumors of fraud within our organization” – it’s not clear what those rumors are – and claims that he was resigning his position.

A phone call and message sent to McCoy was not immediately returned. A message I sent to North Dakota Right to Life at the email address provided for media inquiries in Labar’s statement has not received a response. Labar also did not respond to a phone call.

This turmoil comes as the debate over abortion in North Dakota and across the nation continues to rage, with pro-choice groups

pressing litigation

challenging the state’s anti-abortion laws.

So what happened?

One possible explanation suggested to me by multiple activists in the pro-life movement is that the group’s support for so-called

“responding with love”

bills during the state’s legislative session earlier this year may have created some sharp divisions and hurt feelings among lawmakers.

Examples of this legislation include

Senate Bill 2181,

which expanded the TANF program for pregnant women, and

House Bill 1177,

which created a sales tax exemption for children’s diapers.

Some members of the Republican caucus in the legislature, particularly those from the party’s populist/culture warrior wing, voted against the bills, and because NDRL scored lawmakers in part based on those votes. As a result, those lawmakers received a less-than-perfect score on abortion issues. Because of that, these lawmakers

weren’t named “life protectors” by the group,

an appellation reserved for those with perfect scores.

Among the lawmakers with the less-than-perfect scores was Rep. Jeff Hoverson, Rep. Lori VanWinkle, Rep. Donna Henderson, Rep. Mike Schatz, and Sen. Jeff Magrum.

These are all Republicans, and all members of the aforementioned faction.

Sen. Magrum’s wife, Donna Magrum, is the president of the South Central Right to Life, and has a seat on the board.

Sen. Magrum was the only member of the Senate to vote against SB2181.

Adding an additional wrinkle, that ties this story in with turmoil in the North Dakota Republican Party, is that Sandi Sanford, a

book-banning culture warrior activist

whose election as the new chair of the NDGOP yesterday has divided the party, is a member of the NDRL board.

There is a battle among North Dakota’s conservatives between the moderates and the extremes, and the uproar in the NDGOP, and NDRL, is a side effect of it.