Posted on 05/24/2019 12:07:33 PM PDT by Jess Kitting
Recently I've run into several Planned Parent activists on the street in the metropolitan area where I live.
I usually ignore them, argue with them, or leave them with a snide comment, but today I tried a different approach.
I engaged the representative, a young college student, in a discussion and found that he didn't really believe all the talking points he was spouting.
Unlike most of his co-activists, this young man was persuadable, and hopefully I gave him something to think deeply about on the topic of abortion and the sanctity of human life.
I know that most of the PP activists are quite hardened in their beliefs, but if I/we can get even one activist to change his/her mind, there is hope.
My question:
If I run into someone who is "open" to changing his mind on the abortion issue, what are some good ways to help him/her see the truth? I tend to get angry and argumentative in these types of discussions, but I think a more Christ-like approach would be more effective.
Please share your ideas.
As you noticed, the gentle and patient approach is much better.
It may have worked with this one guy. I wouldn't have bothered talking with his fellow activists.
Ask them if they would like some scrambled spotted owl eggs?
I’ve never tried to persuade someone about abortion, but I personally changed my view rather dramatically over the years. I think the persuadables have probably never really thought the issue through, and so just trying to get them to think about their own position might help.
First, I might suggest it depends on where you yourself are coming from. I personally like Trump’s formulation of the three exceptions: Rape, Incest and to protect the Life of the mother. But I also understand perfectly the view that the if life begins at conception, then none of that should really matter. Not to mention that they open gigantic hoopholes sure to be abused.
But if you’re like me and agree with those exceptions, then you can also accept that while there are critical moral issues with abortion, speaking in terms of absolutes is really hard. The vast majority of people accept abortion as a necessary evil in some situations, but reject in most others. Essentially, “elective abortion” is considered illegal, even if it’s medically or psychologically required in those three instances.
If you can get a person that there is a morally ambiguous middle ground that most people subscribe to, then I would think a discussion about exactly where they stand would be helpful:
When do you think a fetus becomes a human life? Why? What is it about being in the womb that makes a person less worthy of protection than being outside of it would? What are the limits to a parent’s right to harm their own child? What do you think about a woman who smokes and drinks heavily during their pregnancy? Do you think people who are so incapacitated so as to be unable to make their own decisions have rights? If so, what makes them different from a fetus? Do you think abortions for sex selection should be legal? If not, why not? If so, what about abortions based on genetic imperfections? Do you agree that the father has no role to play in the decision? If so, do you agree that the father should be held financially liable if the mother chooses to have the child? If yes, why?
I don’t know how anyone with a true moral compass can wade through those questions without at least conceding that, “my body, my choice”, is not the first and last word on the topic.
First, I only respond to people with whom I have some relationship. You never know how crazy a stranger might be nowadays.
Second, since they tend to relate emotionally, I reply emotionally. People can argue theories and ideas, but no one can argue with your subjective life story.
I tell them that I have adopted 3 children, born of single women, who came from countries which rigorously encourage abortion in such situations. Sometimes I’ll throw in the fact that I also tried to adopt twin girls, but they died of cholera before we got custody. (At this point, we’re all in tears.) I show them my kids’ photos and tell them their rather compelling backstories.
Then I ask if they still think it would have been OK to abort any of them, and if so, which one? Because they’re emotional, virtue-signaling type people, they get rattled. I then explain how, to me, I cannot fathom giving anyone the right to chose to kill my children. Most of them can relate to this.
Obviously, our stories differ. But my point is that it helps to win over an emotional thinker with emotional stories. All the logic in the world is not going to reach them.
He was being polite.
There is only one reason why a college aged male gets involved in political activities such as this: He wants to get laid.
I would suggest ignoring them altogether.
The way past this is to show, by concrete examples (not statistics -- that comes later)--- but stories which show that the woman and the baby are not antagonists or rivals for our loyalty.
The good of the woman naturally coincides with the good of the baby.
You can't nourish one without nourishing the other. You cannot tear apart the one without tearing apart the other.
It's always "Abortion: one dead, one wounded."
And you can't embrace the baby without embracing the woman whose body already embraces him.
I think a very strong insight is, "Can't we widen the doors of acceptance and inclusion? Can't we love them both?"
Ask them if they, personally, are willing stop a beating human heart.
One that they helped create by conception?
Then they have no idea what it’s like. No idea of the trauma, guilt and remorse it causes a woman.
And if the answer is yes, then tell them it is futile debating with a guilty conscience...then walk away.
I like that one.
> It may have worked with this one guy. <
At least your patient argument gave him something to think about. So we can (maybe) score a partial win for you there! On the other hand, no one would be influenced by insults. If anything, it would harden his position.
The unborn is dependent on her mom for life support. The pro abortion side asserts that the woman has an absolute right to withdraw this life support, purely because she no longer feels like providing it.
Ask if this principle can be extended. Should a hospital have the right to not provide expensive care to those who cannot pay? Should we have the right to deny entry to refugees who probably will need welfare support? Do voters have the right to abolish welfare funding?
Use their own principles against them.
Good point. Thanks
Decades ago, when things were very heated we used to see Anti-abortionists dangling baby dolls all ripped up with a limb or two removed smeared in ketchup. But haven’t seen that approach in a long time.
Maybe broadcasting the sound a fetal heartbeat or baby cooing could be effective.
Some people need to ‘see’ it or ‘touch’ it or ‘hear’ it or a message does not resonate.
Photos of adopted babies/children saved from their pre-planned slaughter could also work well.
Hi.
I’m glad you had a good encounter with the opposition.
May you have many more great outcomes and successes.
Just remember to keep your hands out of your pockets and your head on a swivel.
5.56mm
Slavery, abortion, and the Holocaust all have the same thing in common; some people are regarded as less than human.
My favorite points....
The baby is NOT part of the mother. It has a unique human DNA sequence all it’s own just like how your DNA is unique to you.
It is ALIVE. If NASA found the same “group of cells” on Mars they would certainly claim they found life on another planet.
The baby is ALIVE and is a unique human individual life.
There have been people throughout history who have said one group of humans is more deserving of life than other groups of humans. These have been slavers, Nazis, etc...
> Ask them if they, personally, are willing stop a beating human heart. <
I’d say “an innocent beating human heart”, but yes, that’s very good.
I have a Christian friend who believed the “just a blob of cells” lie until my daughter had a what is called a ‘late miscarriage’.
I explained to her what the baby born at 20 weeks gestation really looked like, and showed her the pictures the hospital took of my granddaughter. When presented with the evidence of a fully formed baby girl who just needed more time to gain weight and develop her lungs, my friend instantly changed her mind. Less than two years later, my daughter would lose a baby boy at 22 weeks gestation.
That was 22 years ago. These days, babies his size and age have a chance of surviving.
But the real lesson here is that my daughter’s problems with what is medically called an “incompetent cervix”, is the fact that this condition was caused by the two abortions she had had according to her doctors. (One I didn’t know about until she lost the baby boy, the other I moved heaven and earth to stop, but failed.)
Young women are not being told about this condition by the pro-abortion crowd, and they need to know an abortion could make carrying a wanted baby to term very difficult. We eventually found a doctor who knew to send my daughter to a surgeon for a procedure called a cerclage, sewing the cervix shut until about the 35th week of pregnancy, and bed rest for about 25 weeks.
Joyously it’s birthday season for the two young people born as a result of the cerclage and bedrest. My oldest living granddaughter turns 20 and my oldest living grandson 19 in the next two weeks.(Yeah, they are 11 months, 2 weeks apart) and all that bedrest was worth it! Oh, and my daughter was a single mother through all of this.
You may use any part of this story you wish. Explaining to a frightened young woman how she can avoid even bigger problems will help keep you from becoming angry.
> Ask if this principle can be extended. Should a hospital have the right to not provide expensive care to those who cannot pay? <
And should a person have the right to kill an elderly relative who has become a burden?
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