An Outreach of
Recently, I had a conversation with a pro-choice activist at Colorado State University. After she repeatedly talked over my questions, assuming she knew what I thought, I said, "You haven't even given me a chance to make my case. Can I have even one minute to tell you why I am pro-life?" I got what I asked for. In fact, a crowd had formed and her friend set her watch and instructed me to begin. I was being timed.
Would you know what to say if you were in my shoes? Every day you have similar opportunities even if they are not as contentious as my campus debate. You can make a great impact if you think about what you might say beforehand. In my case, I had about three seconds to decide which tools I would include as I began my response.
Here's how I talked it out — in one minute!
If the unborn is growing, it must be alive. And if it has human parents, it must be human. And living humans, or human beings like you and I, are valuable aren't they?
From conception, all that's added to the unborn is a proper environment and adequate nutrition. But those are the same things all of us need.
And not only that. There's one quality all of us have equally that demands equal treatment: we all have a human nature. Racism and sexism are wrong because they pick out external differences and ignore the underlying similarity between men and women, blacks and whites.
And my concern is for your rights as a woman, that you can vindicate them against the will of the majority, but you can only vindicate your rights if you base them on your human nature.
But the unborn also has that same human nature, so shouldn't we protect him from discrimination just like we protect minorities and women?
________________Steve Wagner is a bio-ethics speaker for Stand to Reason and the author of a new book called "Common Ground Without Compromise - 25 Questions to Create Dialogue on Abortion." In addition to making the pro-life case to those who disagree, Steve specializes in training college students to engage their campuses in large-scale discussion on abortion. Steve has trained students at more than fifteen universities, including the college students at the Focus on the Family Institute.
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Want to talk for more than one minute? Find commentaries that will help you articulate a pro-life perspective on abortion, euthanasia and other bio-ethical issues at Stand to Reason.
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