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Timothy Brahm

Former Director of Training

Timothy Brahm was formerly the Director of Training at Equal Rights Institute. He is interested in helping pro-life and pro-choice people to have better dialogues about abortion through 1) taking care to understand what the other person means, 2) using more carefully-constructed arguments, and 3) treating each other with care and respect. He graduated from Biola University with a B.A. in philosophy and is a perpetual member of the Torrey Honors Institute.

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PODCAST: How to Turn the Tables on Four Pro-Choice Arguments

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Download Audio MP3 | 00:14:15

How do you get someone to change their mind about something?

When I’ve had long conversations about abortion, I have often gone through a process of figuring out any possible creative way to communicate my idea or argument in a way that the other person might actually receive. I have found that forcing someone to argue against their own unfair arguments is the most efficient way to help someone realize that their arguments are actually unfair.

I provide four examples of unfair pro-choice rhetoric, and the ways I turn the tables.

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Subscribe to the Equipped for Life Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Subscribe to ERI’s other podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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Fellow Pro-Lifers: Please Stop Sharing This Straw Man Meme

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Editor’s Note (4/17/24): There are two major problems with the meme this article uses as an example. First, it straw mans the pro-choice view; this is the logic problem explained in the article. Second, it’s derisive toward the pro-choice view it fails to understand; this is a tone problem. Some versions of the “your body/not your body” meme don’t have the tone problem and are used by pro-lifers respectfully and courteously, though all versions have the logic problem.

 

“My body, my choice” is possibly the most common slogan in defense of abortion right now and an embarrassing number of pro-life people completely misunderstand it. Consider the following popular meme:

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes.

meme

Hilarious right? Aren’t pro-choice people stupid? Aren’t they logic-impaired?

No. Please stop.

To what is “my body” referring in the “my body, my choice” slogan? Pro-life people far too often incorrectly assume that it is the body of the unborn. If that was the case, then yes, it would be a dumb thing to say. Let’s call this the Scientifically Ignorant View. That is almost never what pro-choice people mean. They mean the parts of the woman’s body that are affected by pregnancy, such as her uterus, vagina, ovaries, etc. Those are indisputably her body parts and pregnancy affects them.

The pro-life mind is naturally inclined to be focused on the unborn, and understandably so. They are being killed daily by the thousands. Almost nothing justifies killing a human person. But to most pro-choice people, even if the unborn is a human person, women have the right to kill the unborn if they are inside her body. This is the Bodily Rights View. Shouting that the unborn is a human being does nothing to respond to the Bodily Rights View. Absolutely nothing.

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PODCAST: Pro-Lifers Aren’t “Forcing” Women to Stay Pregnant

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Download Audio MP3 | 00:06:29

Wording and phrasing significantly influence discussion. Pro-choice advocates constantly describe the intentions of pro-lifers with the language of “forcing” women. I explain why this is dishonest rhetoric, whether it’s intentional or not.

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Click here to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes!

Subscribe to the Equipped for Life Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Subscribe to ERI’s other podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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PODCAST: Responding to the Astute Observation That I Am a Man

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Download Audio MP3 | 00:07:15

Any time I go to a college campus to do a pro-life outreach, I can count on being reminded that I cannot get pregnant. Inevitably, then the pro-choice person will ask, “How can you have an opinion about abortion when you can’t get pregnant?” Through my own experience, I have developed a strategy for responding that can help pro-life men be reasonable and winsome.

Related Links:

  • Click here to learn more about our pro-life apologetics course, “Equipped for Life: A Fresh Approach to Conversations About Abortion.”

Click here to share the original article.

Click here to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes!

Subscribe to the Equipped for Life Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Subscribe to ERI’s other podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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How Your Brain Tricks You into Thinking the Other Side Is Stupid

Two Practical Tips for Better Social Media Conversations

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Estimated reading time: 6 minutes.

Sometimes your brain plays tricks on you. For instance, when you look at a stick in the water, it looks bent, even though it isn’t. Or, when you’re driving on a hot day, it looks like there is water on the road at the horizon, even though there isn’t. If you want to have true beliefs, it helps to know when your perception is untrustworthy.

In general, people believe things about political issues based on what seems to be true to them. Many different factors influence what seems to be true to us, some of them more than they should. We all have biases, incomplete information, and sometimes faulty arguments that influence what seems to be true to us. But just like it seems to be true that the stick in the water is bent, sometimes what seems to be true politically isn’t actually true.