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Dear Pro-Choice People, Give Pregnancy Centers a Chance

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Pro-choice people: “You pro-lifers don’t actually want to help women and babies, you just want to take away abortion rights.”

Pregnancy centers: *exist*

Pro-choice people: “You’re manipulating women!”

On the one hand, that’s a little bit of a caricature—I’ve never seen a conversation quite that blatant. But on the other hand, I do see pro-choice people make both of those comments online a lot, and I get why that’s frustrating to pro-lifers: Pro-choice people say we don’t want to help women, we point out the many, many volunteered hours and donated dollars the pro-life movement pours into helping women, and then pro-choice people reject that obvious proof that we want to help women by saying our help is actually just a guise for manipulation. It can come across as frustrating, ad hoc, or even duplicitous.

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
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Get Ready. IVF Confusion is Coming.

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On February 18, 2025, President Trump signed the executive order “Expanding Access to In Vitro Fertilization,” setting off a firestorm of comments, criticisms, and confusion among pro-life and pro-choice people alike. “We want to make it easier for mothers and fathers to have babies, not harder, you know that…that includes supporting the availability of fertility treatments like IVF in every state in America,” Trump said on the campaign trail last spring. “I strongly support the availability of IVF for couples who are trying to have a precious, little, beautiful baby.”

It’s not hard to see why Americans overwhelmingly believe access to IVF is a good thing. I mean, Trump is right; IVF means that more couples can have more babies! What’s the problem with that?! So pro-choice people (and even some pro-life people) are incredibly confused why Trump’s Executive Order just 30 days into his presidency didn’t make us pop the champagne. 

By us, I mean Rebecca, Emily, and our awesome ERI Affiliate Groups who researched and brainstormed how to effectively respond to the bewildered looks we’ve been getting on college campuses. Rebecca and I co-wrote this article, but really the credit goes to our awesome Affiliate Group members. The pro-choice train of thought we all thought through together goes something like “Isn’t more babies exactly what pro-lifers want? But they don’t support IVF?! Oh, so it really IS just about controlling women’s bodies and sex lives after all…” Here’s what we found.

Estimated reading time: 16 minutes
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Is It Okay to Find Edge Cases Challenging?

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Tell me if this story sounds familiar— you’re going about your day, maybe tapping through your friends’ Instagram stories or scrolling through funny cat videos on TikTok, when you see a headline in bold print:

“PRO-LIFE LAW CAUSES HORRIFIC CHAIN OF EVENTS”

You’re strongly pro-life. You’ve taken the Equipped for Life Course, led a pro-life student or church group, or even currently work full time for an anti-abortion organization. But, you read the details, and for at least a moment, everything you believe starts to tilt. You’re no longer sure if you’re on the right side of this issue. 

Estimated reading time: 4 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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Now What? Abortion Dialogue After a Trump Victory

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Election night. After weeks of hearing from almost every major pollster that this election would be unprecedently close and maybe wouldn’t be called for days, it just…wasn’t. It wasn’t close at all. Harris supporters are reeling, and it’s probably no surprise to you that college campuses are a rough place to be right now. That’s why we turned to our ERI Affiliate Groups—local pro-life clubs, many on college campuses—to brainstorm: how should we pro-lifers be handling conversations with pro-choice people in the aftermath?

So yes, Rebecca Carlson and Emily Geiger co-wrote this article, but our incredibly thoughtful students deserve to be in the byline too. They’re out there every day, on the front lines engaging directly with thousands of pro-choice people, and this article came out of their experience and ideas.

Photo by The Now Time

Estimated reading time: 19 minutes