How to Talk to Democrats About Abortion: Five Strategies for Making the Pro-Life Case

IC ^ | October 29, 2009 | Eric Pavlat

[NYer]

Eric Pavlat is a convert from pro-choice agnosticism whose conversion story appears in Surprised by Truth 2 (Sophia Institute Press, 2000). He's also a board member of Democrats for Life of Maryland, Inc., and a blogger and columnist for InsideCatholic.com.&

[NYer]

Catholic Ping
Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list

[BubbaBasher]

Beyond prayer, the key to any discussion is to locate the common ground you share with your conversation partner and work from there.

He lost me there. Our country has become so polarized that there is little hope of finding common ground. If I did find common ground I would immediately rethink my position on that topic.

[NTHockey]

Mistake #1 is allowing them to control the language. Pro-choice is simply pro-murder. The quicker we take back the language and frame the debate in Conservative terms, the sooner we can expose them for the cruel, inhumane despicable people they really are.

Next time someone drops the pro-choice term, come back with “So you like murdering little babies, eh?”

[kidd]

I have found that the best strategy is to talk to teenagers. 9th and 10th grade is best.

At this point in their life, they are generally apolitical. Their minds are looking for answers and it’s best to give them the right answer first.

I explain to them that they will probably encounter a friend that is pregnant some time in their near future. I explain to them that their friend will be very scared. I explain that their friend will be desperately looking for guidance in this difficult situation. I explain that their friend will probably come to them before they go to their parents, because they trust them. I explain that THAT makes them a VERY important person in their life and that they had better be prepared to provide the right answer...one that their friend won’t regret later. Then I explain the evils and long-lasting scars of abortion and that they need to pass that information along to their friend.

[skully]

Remind them it was a good thing their mother was pro-life once; or they wouldn't be here to have this debate.

[kidd]

Good.

and
“Does the baby get a choice? How about the father? The grandparents? Does society get a choice if they want to support the increased probability of depression or breast cancer?”

[Apercu]

Absolutely right. Pretzel semantics and weasel words are part of the problem. Call it what it is - the murder of innocent unborn children.

[joeystoy]

Well said.

[skully]

Mistake #1 is allowing them to control the language. Pro-choice is simply pro-murder.

Absolutely. Whenever this issue comes up during conversation/debate with libtard family and friends. I never use the word abortion, and always purposely refer to it as “baby killing”. When they say they prefer the term “abortion”; I tell them I understand why. I mean if I supported baby killing, I guess I'd invent a term to make my view more palatable to myself too.

[MEGoody]

Pro-aborts always try to marginalize any argument against abortion by saying it's a religious issue, and only between a woman and her God.

The reality is, it is a scientific fact that a human being is created at conception. After that, one can only choose to philosophically argue when it is morally right to kill a human. The pro-aborts are terrified of that truth.

[Question_Assumptions]

With respect to common ground, if the other person isn't religious, don't rely on religious anti-abortion arguments. If that's the angle you want to take, then you've got to work on converting them to establish the foundation that your argument rests on and trying to build an argument on religious grounds without a religious foundation is like building on sand. It's entirely possible to argue against abortion without bringing up religion at all. In fact, people who support aboriton are often taken by surprise by non-religious arguments because on of their stock responses to to frame abortion as a religious difference of opinion.

I'm not suggesting people hide from their faith, but if that's your approach, focus on the faith, first, and don't jump right in to abortion.

[NYer]

He lost me there.

Did you even bother to read the article?!!

[Faith]

Great article, NYer. Many thanks.

[the invisib1e hand]

How to Talk to Democrats About Abortion: Five Strategies for Making the Pro-Life Case

Practice helps. Start by trying to sell timeshares in Harlem. Once you've mastered that, move on to talking raindrops into falling up.

[Mr. Know It All]

I can speak from experience when I say that Strategy #2 is extremely effective, but there's a hitch.

We need a system in which no woman feels there's a need for abortion. In other words, we need to admit that the U.S. government isn't yet doing what it should to establish justice and promote the general welfare when it comes to pregnant women. While volunteer groups have bravely filled an important void in crisis pregnancy centers, the government should step up to the plate where volunteerism is overwhelmed.

The reason that Democrats respond to this is that this is socialism. What system would make a woman feel there is no need for an abortion? A system where she doesn't have to worry about housing and feeding her child. Also a system where she doesn't have to worry about affording pre-natal care or the cost of the actual birth. What kind of country guarantees those things? A socialist country.

So, which is worse? Having half the country be pro-abortion or having more socialism in our nation?

[Neidermeyer]

So, which is worse? Having half the country be pro-abortion or having more socialism in our nation?

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Any crisis pregnancy assistance must be privately run ... we cannot allow ourselves to go 100% socialist like Cuba ... if you think socialist means the end of abortion because the womans and childs needs will be met think again .. in Russia women having double digit abortion counts was ROUTINE ,, in Cuba 90% of all pregnancies end in abortion ,, the mothers don't want their children to live in a system like that and the system would rather abort for the price of a few minutes of a doctors time than take on the burden of another mouth.

[Mr. Know It All]

Any crisis pregnancy assistance must be privately run...

The point made in Strategy #2 is that "the government should step in" when those private efforts fall short. Naturally, that appeals to Democrats. So are you saying that given the choice between converting a Democrat to pro-life and opposing socialism, you'd oppose socialism?

in Cuba 90% of all pregnancies end in abortion

Wow. That's not even CLOSE to true. It was 34% in 2005. You'll notice that "use fabricated statistics" was not in the list of suggested strategies. There's a reason for that: a lot of Democrats know how to use Google and if you don't check your facts, you look either foolish or dishonest.

Also, while Cuba is socialist, it is also extremely poor. Abortion rates in a wealthy socialist country, like Sweden, are lower (25%). They aren't significantly higher than the US (23%). Canada, with it's single-payer system is slightly lower (22%), and the UK with its government-run National Health Service also comes in at 22%. That would suggest we could save some children by adopting either of their systems, right? Obviously, it's not that simple.

Really, if you look at the data, what lowers the abortion rate is freedom and economic opportunity (which are related). Socialism itself does not appear to play a huge role either way.

[Neidermeyer]

Your cherry picking sources ,, your UN source shows a rate less than half what the Guttmacher Inst. has listed for 1996 ,, 77.7% in Cuba ,, I have seen the 90% rate listed for them in other places but won't bother to search for it now, I don't want to continue a pointless pissing contest. I believe the 90% numbers were actually a 75-80% abortion rate plus early infant deaths which were listed as abortion so their infant mortality numbers would look better ,, just like East Germany used to do. I see you're not contesting the percentages in eastern european countries.

Don't you understand that Cuba reports WHAT IT WANTS TO REPORT and that it's numbers (the numbers you quote) are just as made up as Obama's "jobs created or saved" ... The 90% actual numbers were an embarrasment so they changed what they report ... The point I was making is that if we go socialist/communist like Cuba then all your good intentions don't matter...

http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/25s3099.html

And yes I have contributed to crisis pregnancy centers in the past.

[Neidermeyer]

Really, if you look at the data, what lowers the abortion rate is freedom and economic opportunity (which are related). Socialism itself does not appear to play a huge role either way.

***********************************************

Please re-read the last line in your post and explain to those of us that obviously aren't as sophisticated and nuanced as you how you can say "... what lowers the abortion rate is freedom and economic opportunity (which are related)." and then you throw the engines in reverse at full power and say "Socialism itself does not appear to play a huge role either way." I just can't seem to square those two statements up with each other. Help me understand...