Estimated reading time: 4 minutes.

I respond to a listener who asks “Why are we trying to be so careful to accurately describe other people’s positions? They do just fine describing it for themselves.”

My next few posts will be responding to follow-up questions regarding a recent discussion I led on Life Report on what terms to use in abortion dialogues, focusing most of the debate on “pro-abortion” vs. “pro-choice.” I was joined by Steve Wagner from Justice For All and Gabi Vehrs from the Fresno City College Students for Life club, and we all agreed that pro-life advocates should generally use the term “pro-choice” when beginning a dialogue, even though many pro-life people see that as an inaccurate “weasel word.” Steve argued that he needs to ask the person in front of him a lot of questions to accurately understand what they think about abortion, and he doesn’t want to create unnecessary impediments to the dialogue by using offensive terms that he doesn’t even think accurately portrays most abortion advocates.