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AugustineThomas
That's a great story. Sounds like she came to the same conclusions that many of us did after carefully considering the issue. I don't mean to generalize, but I know of very few people who are pro-choice that deeply consider the matter. They usually are the ones who haven't thought too much about it and only know that they don't like the idea of someone telling a woman what to do with her body. The most distressing part of this issue is that, in my opinion, Satan has tricked people into believing that they're protecting women by murdering children. (In effect, Satan has convinced people to use one evil, men trying to control women, as an argument to protect another evil, the mass slaughter of children.)
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Anonymous
I don't think that's a fair judgement to make. There are pro-choice people that have thought very carefully about the issue. I would wager that, just based on what I've heard, Deanna thought and read more about the matter than 99% of people on either side (even before she began communicating with Josh). Conversely, there are many pro-lifers that haven't seriously considered it at all. Josh has spent a lot of time critiquing faulty pro-life arguments and tactics.
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Anonymous
That's such a cute t-shirt :)
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jeannieology
Awesome, awesome, awesome!
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chandlerklebs
"Yet Deanna believed that abortion was so wrong that she wanted to go to her local abortion facility and encourage girls not to have the abortions she thought should be legal."
I think that a person who admits that abortion is immoral is already pro-life.
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joshbrahm
I definitely knew that progress was being made at that point. :)
Everybody seems to have a definition of the word "pro-life." While I know that sometimes it's impossible to talk about this issue without referring to an entire side of the debate, I'm less interested in the label and more interested in understanding very clearly what the individual person in question believes so that we can move the conversation forward.
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chandlerklebs
For me, pro-life activism is more than just about abortion. The idea is to promote life wherever possible. This includes all acts of kindness.
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acyutananda
Thanks very much for the story. At this moment I just wanted to mention that your typed version of the T-shirt text is missing one line . . .
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joshbrahm
Nice catch! Fixing now.
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rose_pearl22
It's hard to write something that doesn't sound like, 'Yay, you won the prize! You made a pro-choicer into a pro-lifer!' Because that's not what I want to say, even though I do think that's an awesome outcome. Rather, I loved reading this account because it's such a great example on why I've come to believe that the relational style is so important - because I can see how arguments coming from a place of love and respect have a much greater impact and are less easily dismissed than aggressiveness and an us-versus-them mentality.
On another note (the RU-486 note), I've started putting together a blog post on bodily autonomy. I am currently trying to think through the whole idea of a 'disconnect' and medical abortions being analogous to disconnecting from the violinist. I'm still working through it, but some of my thoughts thus far are:
  • how unhooking from the violinist does not place him in an environment that he is not physiologically designed to survive within, whereas placing the extremely premature child outside uterus does so (to make the violinist scenario analogous, you would have to have him being shot into space or submerged under water upon disconnection).
  • regarding how interrupting a physiological process that supplies a need differs from reversing an artificial process that supplies a need (edited to add: or allowing a pathological process to run its course).
  • how (harking back to the de facto guardian argument) the disconnect ceases, without any possibility of reestablishment, the supply of a basic need (nutrition) that one could argue is the responsibility of the parent to supply.
    A bit disjointed, but - like I said - I'm still working through it. Would love to hear your thoughts on the matter!
    Made any plans to come to Australia yet? :)
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joshbrahm
Love it! Maybe the you, Deanna and me can do a little brainstorming on those topics here.
I have yet to be invited to Australia. http://joshbrahm.com/about/speaking. ;)
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rose_pearl22
Thanks, Josh. Would love to brainstorm! I've passed on your details to Right To Life Australia. Hopefully something might come of it!