Right To Life Radio | Life Report

We weren't able to cover everything I wanted to during the Life Report episode, but Dr. Poupard was gracious enough to spend some more time answering questions about this important topic. 1: How do birth control pllls and Plan B work, why do some people think that they are abortifacients and why do you think that they may not be? 2: Comment on article from Catholic Bioethics...Quarterly that cites studies indicating that Plan B is not an abortifacient and argues that the labels on Plan B may not mean anything. Is there a medical bias issue at play? 3: Question #1 from Dan: What about the studies cited in Randy Alcorn's book that breakthrough pregnancies while on oral contraceptives are more likely to be ectopic? 4: Question #2 from Dan: What is the state of the research on Progesterone-only pills like the mini pill and copper/hormonal IUD's?

We've been wanting to shoot an episode on this topic for several years, and it's finally done! It's sometimes a contentious topic among pro-life people, but it's an important one nonetheless. How should pro-life people think and talk about birth control, aside from the important religious debate about whether or not you should plan your family? Dr. Rich Poupard from Life Training Institute comes on the show to offer his expertise. 02:25 - Dr. Poupard summarizes what he's learned about the medical question of how birth control methods work. 04:55 - How does Plan B work according to the research and what does a woman's weight have to do with it's effectiveness? 08:45 - Do you think women are getting enough information about the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of Plan B? 09:25 - Why the new Plan B research will probably result in MORE abortifacient use, and not less. 12:32 - Were pro-abortion-choice advocates talking about the new Plan B/weight study when it came out, or have they been hesitant to discuss it pu

We've got an unaired episode that was never published on YouTube for technical reasons that we recently resolved. Josh Brahm and Liz Goddard interview Bobby Schindler, the Executive Director of the Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network which works to protect the lives of the medically vulnerable and disabled from the threat of euthanasia. Join the discussion at http://ProLifePodcast.net/185. 00:29 Can you give us a brief overview of your sister Terri's story? 04:18 Did Michael wait 30-45 minutes after Terri's collapse before calling 911? 05:27 Can you define "persistent vegetative state" for us, and whether you believe Terri was in a persistent vegetative state? 06:53 Is there an objective definition of PVS? 08:11 Did Terri fit that medical criteria for PVS? 09:04 What progress did Terri show in the first two years of rehab before Michael took her off of rehab? 10:15 What happened to the trust fund that was earmarked for Terri's therapy? 12:25 Why do you think that Michael refused to divorce Terri after movin

Rebecca Hashke from Justice For All joins Josh Brahm and Gabi Vehrs to discuss a question that pro-lifers often struggle with. After offering some thoughts on how pro-lifers should respond to this question, the discussion turns to another philosophical conundrum that pro-choice people often ask about: should the fact that abortion bans would be hard to enforce mean that we shouldn't try to make abortion illegal?

Our favorite Notre Dame Law grad John Gerardi joins us again, this time to discuss the Pope's recent confusing comments about abortion. Note from Josh: We recorded this episode in October, 2013. I'm grateful that yesterday (December 9th) Pope Francis made a clear pro-life statement to the Dignitatis Humanae Institute, a pro-life group in Rome.

Steve Wagner from Justice For All joins Josh Brahm and Gabi Vehrs to discuss what Students for Life clubs should do with their events. Steve argues that every event should create a debate about abortion that can be turned into a dialogue. Here's the list of typical pro-life campus club activities that Steve assesses in this episode: 1: Cupcakes For Life. 2: Poll table event - Debate2Dialogue.org for pics. 3: Bringing speakers (pro-life apologetics, post-abortion, etc.) or hosting a debate. 4: Screening movies like "It's a Girl," "180," "October Baby" and "Bella." 5: Volunteering for the local Pregnancy Resource Center. 6: Diaper drives. 7: Traveling to the March for Life. 8: Bound4Life events. (Red tape over mouth.)

Steve Wagner from Justice For All joins Josh Brahm and Gabi Vehrs for a two-episode discussion about common terms and labels used in the abortion debate.  In this episode they focus on the labels that both sides of the debate call the entity killed in an abortion: unborn, preborn, zygote, embryo, fetus, fetal human, baby and child. Steve uses the word "unborn" at the beginning of a dialogue with a pro-choice person so as not to add an unnecessary impediment to the conversation, and to avoid begging the question. Steve responds to the following challenges to his approach: "Aren't we humanizing the unborn by calling her a 'child' or by using male/female pronouns?" "What about when we're writing? Do we always need to make a case for the humanity of the unborn before we start calling her a 'baby' or using male/female pronouns?"

Steve Wagner from Justice For All joins Josh Brahm and Gabi Vehrs for a two-episode discussion about common terms and labels used in the abortion debate. In this episode they focus on the labels that both sides of the debate call each other: pro-choice, pro-abortion. pro-abort. pro-abortion-choice. pro-life. anti-abortion. anti-choice. Steve, Josh and Gabi explain why they are willing to use the term "pro-choice" when beginning a dialogue, even though many pro-life people see that as an inaccurate "weasel word."  Steve argues 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. Steve also responds to the following challenges to his approach: "But isn't 'pro-choice' the least accurate label for the other side?" "What about when it's just pro-life people hanging out? Shoul

Megan Almon from Life Training Institute joins Josh Brahm and Gabi Vehrs to discuss strawman fallacies. Josh starts the show by stating that both pro-life and pro-choice people strawman the other side all the time, and he shares several examples. They then discuss how people can avoid making strawman arguments. How can we intentionally listen to people and ask a LOT of clarification questions to determine what they actually believe?

Josh Brahm and Gabi Vehrs have a candid conversation about the state of the pro-life movement, and some of the most important things we need to do in the next ten years to set ourselves up in a good trajectory towards victory.

Josh, Gabi and Megan Almon from Life Training Institute discuss how pro-lifers can best respond to pro-choice people who argue that abortion should be legal because the world is overpopulated or because women will die in back-alleys if abortion became illegal. Note: Our strategy for responding to back-alley abortions relies heavily on the work of Steve Wagner from Justice For All.

The second part of Josh's interview with Brad Mattes, CEO of Life Issues Institute and host of the Emmy award-winning television show, "Facing Life Head-On." Brad answers the questions from the "Life Report Questionnaire" and more! Questions: What did you get in trouble for as a child? What is your favorite movie, and why? What has been the pro-life movement's greatest victory (or victories) so far? What has been the pro-life movement's greatest failing or weakness?  Does the pro-life movement need more unity, and if so, how can we accomplish that?  Graphic Pictures: Should we use them, and if so, how, when, and where?  What would you say to those who would argue that graphic pictures should be used in very public places because children don't seem to be too negatively effected by them?  Stem Cell Research & Human Cloning: What should pro-lifers be doing about this, and why?  What would you say to those who say it's unfair to compare the current successes of ESCR with adult stem cell research since ASCR

Josh interviews Brad Mattes, CEO of Life Issues Institute and host of the Emmy award-winning television show, "Facing Life Head-On."  Check back in two weeks for the second part of this interview, where Brad answers the questions from the "Life Report Questionnaire" and more! Questions: 1:11 - How did you get involved in the pro-life movement? 2:15 - How early was Dr. Wilke publishing pro-life literature and media? 2:54 - How do you think the pro-life movement has changed in the last 40 years, especially as it relates to media? 5:04 - What have you learned about how abortion affects men? 6:45 - What resources are available at http://LifeIssues.org? 7:32 - Tell us about your TV show, "Facing Life Head-On." 9:01 - What are some of the common themes on your show? 9:37 - How do you get Emmy nominations doing pro-life work? 10:38 - What were you hoping to accomplish by going to Ethiopia? 11:57 - What happened with the Ethiopian abortion worker you spoke to? 13:20 - Can you tell our audience about the woman you met

I got a wonderful email from Andres in Santa Barbara who was in a dialogue about abortion and used an analogy about being hooked up to a machine in order to demonstrate that your personhood isn't based on your dependance. But the person he was talking to retorted, "Are you comparing a woman to a machine?!" Andres wants to know what I would suggest we do to avoid throwing people off when the analogies we use seem, at a surface level, to demean pregnant women. In the video, I offer six tips for making clear analogies and responding to people who continue to misinterpret them. 1: Make sure you're communicating clearly. 2: Narrate the debate. 3: Suggest a golden rule for dialogue. 4: Explain that analogies are just that...analogies! 5: Explain that pro-choice people would be wise to not throw out all analogies. 6: Determine the right time to politely end the conversation. Find more resources about bodily rights argument for abortion at: http://prolifepodcast.net/tag/bodily-rights

Casey Vroman from Students for Life of America joins us in studio to talk about the free resources that SFLA offers to college students and now high schoolers. We believe it's important that all pro-life advocates know about these resources so that you can point students in your sphere of influence to them. Questions: 1:55 How did you get involved with Students for Life and the pro-life movement? 3:15 How would you explain what Students for Life does to somebody who hasn't heard of SFLA before? 4:22 What is SFLA's long-term goal with campus clubs? 5:35 What is SFLA doing with high school students now? 6:46 What has it been like working with high school students? 8:18 Is SFLA planning on working with junior high students in the future, and what would you say to concerned parents about that? 10:29 What are some of the initiatives you're doing on college campuses now? 13:23 What practical resources is SFLA offering to college students? 16:14 What are some common mistakes students can avoid when starting a campus

Here's an outline of my main points in response to this question from Bobby: "Some pro-life people oppose 'incrementalist' pro-life laws because they always end with '... and then you can kill the baby.' What are your thoughts? Note: Many of my arguments and thinking on these issues comes from conversations I had with Scott Klusendorf and Dr. Francis Beckwith, who both graciously spent time with me while I was working through these issues in 2007. I'm not sure now who said what and how many of these arguments are really my own, nor would I want to source any of these arguments directly to Scott or Frank without their permission. (These were all private conversations.) It's probably a fair assumption that the really smart talking points came from one of them though. This was supposed to be a video but we had technical difficulties with the recorded video, so I'm posting the audio only. Common ground: I agree that we don't want to communicate to people that we only care about babies that feel pain, are a certai

After summarizing Abby Johnson's story, Josh asks 40 Days for Life co-founder Shawn Carney about his ministry as well as the state of the pro-life movement. Questions: How do you think 40 Days for Life has changed the pro-life movement? Knowing what you know now, what would you have done differently when starting 40 Days for Life? Do people often go from participating in 40 Days for Life to doing other pro-life activities? What are you doing to encourage that? What do you think are the best methods for a local 40 Days for Life campaign? What could RLCC do better to persuade people to participate in sidewalk counseling? What has been the pro-life movements greatest victory so far? What has been the pro-life movements greatest weakness? What single thing should pro-lifers be doing that most are not doing right now? How should pro-life people interact with those that are pro-abortion-choice?

Josh, Tim and Gabi discuss what it actually means to be open-minded, (it does NOT mean being wishy-washy,) and whether pro-life people should be open-minded too.

After wrapping up four Life Report episodes, Josh, Tim and Gabi hung out to cover some material they didn't have time to get into earlier in the day. Those topics and questions for Tim include: You said, "Love does not insist on its own way; it does not need to have the last word in a debate." Does that conflict with the Stand to Reason mantra of trying to leave people with a pebble in their shoe? A discussion of pro-life memes and why most of them are bad. You said, "Love is not resentful, it does not dwell on the failures of those around us. Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing. It is not excited when those around us are caught in sin." What about pro-life groups like Live Action that do undercover investigative videos catching Planned Parenthood doing bad things? Can you talk about how we are to love practically with those in the pro-life movement who may disagree on our political method, for example on our use of graphic images? How would you apply your piece to that? Which line in the 1 Cor 13 piece do y

Megan Almon from Life Training Institute joins Josh and Gabi to discuss how pro-lifers can have productive conversations about Gosnell, as well as the common mistakes pro-lifers should avoid. One of the most common questions we get is "how do you start non-weird conversations about abortion when you're not on campus next to a pro-life exhibit?" One of the easier methods is to use a story that's currently in the news. Josh thinks pro-life people can have good conversations about abortion starting with the controversy of what Gosnell did, but he doesn't think you should stop there. He uses several specific questions to lead the conversation into talking about the abortions that are less controversial to pro-choice people: abortions done on first-trimester babies that are in the womb, aren't viable, aren't conscious and don't feel pain. After giving these questions and dialogue tips, the discussion turns to what pro-life people should NOT do when talking about Gosnell. What are the most common mistakes pro-lifer