Category Archives: Practical Dialogue Tips

After going through the fire of 3,000+ conversations with pro-choice people, we’ve learned a lot of things that create an environment in the conversation where the other person is more likely to change their mind. These are some of those nitty-gritty dialogue tips.

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What Should We Call Them?

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Fetus. Baby. Clump of cells. Preborn. Unborn.

In the abortion debate, there are a number of different ways people refer to the entity in the womb, and they all come with different baggage. 

It probably won’t surprise you that there are disagreements between pro-choice and pro-life advocates as far as which terms to use, but it doesn’t stop there! For years, it’s even been a debate amongst pro-lifers. After all, language can matter an awful lot when it comes to perception and psychology. It’s only natural for us to push for terms that we believe are most effective in helping our society understand the value of the human in the womb.

At ERI, we often get questions about the words we choose to use and the scenarios we use them in. I’d like to take this opportunity to give you not just an approved word bank, but also a look into our thought process.

Photo by Lunarcaustic

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

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Your Dialogue Partner Might Know Less than You Expect

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Want to hear one of the more unbelievable things I’ve ever heard at an outreach?

No, it has nothing to do with a super-extremist pro-choice position or some high-octane philosophical argument. It wasn’t even an “open mouth, insert foot” moment by another pro-life activist. Instead, it was a display of painful, low-level ignorance.

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
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Compassion works. Bullhorns don’t.

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As an officer of Titans for Life at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh (one of our wonderful Affiliate Groups across the country), Sally Windler knows ERI apologetics forward, backward, and inside out. Recently, on the way out of a pro-choice panel discussion on her college campus, Sally stumbled upon an all-too-common scene: two men with cameras strapped to their bodies, holding a giant image of a bloody, dismembered baby doll. A camera on a tripod nearby recorded the small crowd that had formed around the pair as they screamed Bible verses at the appalled students.

Unfortunately, this scene is all too familiar to the pro-life advocates we train. In fact, one of the most common questions we receive from sidewalk counselors is how to handle “abolitionist” activists who act like this (or worse). It is often the case that no matter what the more gracious pro-lifer says;, the abolitionist will often get argumentative or just refuse to talk to the advocate at all, making progress nearly impossible.

Yet, after only one conversation with Sally, these two abortion abolitionists abandoned their bullhorns and walked away!

So, how did she do it?

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
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A Response to the Car Crash Analogy

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Suppose that while you’re driving home from work, you get into a car accident, and the other person is severely injured. He’ll die unless you give him a kidney. It would be morally admirable of you to donate your kidney to him, but many people find it doubtful that you should be legally required to donate your kidney. They would say that the government shouldn’t force you to provide this sort of bodily assistance, even though it’s necessary to save the other driver’s life.

A news truck coming out of the side of a building that's in the air

Estimated reading time: 11 minutes