Written by: Emilee Harvey
Brenna Lewis, the regional coordinator for Students for Life, taught students how to engage others on the topic of abortion on October 3 in Bryan College Mercer conference room Dayton, Tenn.
Lewis scientifically explained preborn. She said “pre-borns are distinct, living, whole, human beings whose development is self directed. The common misconceptions with understanding the parts with a whole is that a part is not self-directed while a whole is self-directed.” Meaning, a part for example is skin cells and people cannot choose willingly or not to reproduce those cells. A whole is you – the person – and getting to choose whatever the person wants to do.
The question is when do human rights begin? When is a baby a baby? “Some people think of a baby just as making a car,” Lewis said. “So when is a car a car?”
When confronting people on the streets about abortion, Lewis noted that people have 10 seconds to make their argument. In those 10 seconds, you must ask three questions: If the pre-born is growing, isn’t it alive? If it has human parents, isn’t it human? If living humans like you and me have human rights, then why don’t they?
Today, even babies are discriminated against. Lewis said, “abortion is age discrimination.” According to abort73.com, approximately 11,411 babies are aborted in Tennessee every year while 907,654 are aborted every year in the United States. On average “19% are Hispanic, 36% are black, and 37% are white.”
Poverty, unwanted, age, no support, fetal anomaly, career and rape are the main circumstances brought up when talking about abortion. Lewis explained effective ways to engage with them. The first way is to acknowledge the difficulties.
“People don’t care how much you know until they know you actually care,” Lewis said “Show compassion to the person getting the abortion.”
Depending on the situation, Lewis warned to not listen to respond, and how sometimes it is better to simply listen. Not everything has to become an argument. Sometimes, people going through that situation needs someone to talk to and listen to them instead of trying to argue with them. It’s important to not interrupt when they are telling their story, she added.
Lewis said to establish common ground without compromising after listening. Lewis said this tactic helps show the people that “you’re not weird; you’re human too!” After establishing a common ground with the woman, it would be a good time to address the real needs of the woman. While society often presents abortion as a fix all, it doesn’t fix the problems that bring a woman to the place of choosing the abortion.
“Be proud of your pro-life position!” Lewis said. “If we don’t stand up for our tiny humans, who will?” A baby is a baby when it is first conceived. Abortion is a tough subject to talk about no matter who you’re talking to. As pro-life activists, we need to be careful with our words as well as listen carefully to the woman going through this hard decision.
Emilee Harvey is a communications major with a focus in film and design and is the graphics coordinator.
