Josh Brahm and Monica Snyder return to discuss the question: "Do You Need Religion to be Pro-Life?" The conversation touches on practical and philosophical points, including discussion about objective and subjective morality and its relationship with deism, as well as Monica's experiences responding to both pro-life and pro-choice people who raise a scrutinizing eyebrow when they realize that they are talking with a pro-life atheist.

Links:

Secular Pro-Life

Secular Pro-Life: "Is belief in God necessary for the pro-life cause to succeed?"

Secular Pro-Life: "Where do atheists think human rights come from?"

A couple of examples of pro-choice religious-ish-ness:

• "'Where does life begin?' is a spiritual question"
• "We invited the child's spirit to revisit Earth another time."

Human Life Review: SYMPOSIUM: What's God Got to Do with It?

Secular Pro Life's blog of sources about moral realism from non-theistic perspectives

"Is God Necessary for Morality?" Debate between Shelly Kagan and William Lane Craig

Pew Research Center study on religiously unaffiliated people (specifically the "Beliefs & practices" tab)

EFL Podcast on Stanford persuasion study

Retten Til Liv (Denmark Right to Life)

Equal Rights Institute

Equal Rights Institute Blog

Equipped for Life Academy

Equipped for Life Course

Sidewalk Counseling Masterclass

Chapters:

00:00:00 Introduction

00:00:46 How both sides react to pro-life atheists

00:03:29 How do you respond to the pro-choice people?

00:13:15 Responding to pro-lifers

00:20:10 Examining demographic trends, statistics, and labels

00:27:27 Widening the tent to welcome atheists and other alt pro-lifers

00:35:50 How do you respond to the nihilist as an atheist?

00:42:52 Will the Pro-Life Movement survive increasing secularity?

00:47:57 Do you need religion to be pro-choice?

00:52:57 Can pro-life Christians evangelize without being off-putting?

01:04:18 Wrap-up

Host: Josh Brahm

Guest: Monica Snyder

Audio/Video Editors: Joshua Head, Josh Brahm

Publisher: Ellen Campbell

After much anticipation, Josh Brahm FINALLY gets to interview Monica Snyder from Secular Pro-Life about her background and expertise in Forensics. Monica explains how her work in forensics and DNA analysis affects her view on the abortion issue, particularly when it comes to questions about the justice system and why we shouldn't prosecute women who have had abortions.

Content warning: Includes discussion of forensic rape kits as well as methods of testing whether a baby was aborted instead of miscarried.

Links:

Testing biological tissue for abortion drugs

"Was the Infant Born Alive?" A Review of Postmortem Techniques Used to Determine Live Birth In Cases of Suspected Neonaticide

National Right to Life: Joint Open Letter: Criminalizing Women Who Have Abortions is Not Pro-Life

ERI Statement: Should Women Be Prosecuted for Illegal Abortions?

Secular Pro-Life

Equal Rights Institute

Equal Rights Institute Blog

Equipped for Life Academy

Equipped for Life Course

Sidewalk Counseling Masterclass

Chapters:

00:00:00 Introducing Monica's forensics credentials and background

00:03:25 Describing the Innocence Project

00:06:25 Monica describes her forensics work

00:09:30 Real forensics vs. TV forensics

00:15:50 Why rape cases are difficult to prosecute

00:21:40 Where forensics touches the abortion debate in a post-Dobbs world

00:24:45 Distinguishing abortion pills and miscarriage?

00:34:16 Concerns with attaching criminal penalties to women who have had abortions

00:41:55 What rights do convicted people have?

00:48:35 What would a dystopian prosecution of all women who had abortions look like?

00:49:50 What is a more realistic interpretation of pro-lifers who want to attach criminal penalties to abortion look like?

00:51:10 Plea deals and public defenders

00:54:40 'Steel-manning' the pro-lifers who want to attach criminal penalties to abortion

00:58:10 Trauma associated with miscarriage

00:59:45 Relevant questions from real cases

01:02:20 WARNING: Morbid description

01:03:45 Conclusions from Monica

01:06:30 Josh's eyewitness testimony story

01:11:16 Monica's eyewitness testimony story

01:13:55 Applying this to a recent case

01:17:25 Wrapping up

Host: Josh Brahm

Guest: Monica Snyder

Audio/Video Editors: Joshua Head, Josh Brahm

Publisher: Ellen Campbell

Content warning: This whole episode is about sex. It's probably not the episode to listen to around your kids.

Secular Pro-Life's Monica Snyder returns to the Equipped for Life Podcast for another series of episodes, beginning with the topic, "It's About Babies, Not Your Sex Life." Stemming from real-life conversations, Monica and Josh identify many of the various factors that contribute to pro-choice perceptions or labeling of pro-life people as being "anti-sex" and then respond accordingly to each factor.

The Dynamic Duo also provides some fun commentary on the symbiotic relationship between Secular Pro-Life and Equal Rights Institute, and how the pro-life movement as a whole can benefit from similar relationships.

Finally, towards the end, Josh and Monica talk about how snark might be a good last-resort effort in a dialogue situation.

Secular Pro-Life: It's about the babies, not your sex life: 5 examples

Josh Brahm: Relational Apologetics Tips: How to Cultivate Friendship Amidst Challenging Conversations

Josh Brahm's speech on relational apologetics

Gallup's Moral Acceptability poll

Episode 47: Should Pro-Lifers be Snarky? (with Dank Pro-Life Memes)

Episode 49: Defining the Word "Abortion" Will Change Your Dialogues (with Dank Pro-Life Memes)

Episode 100: Celebrating 100 Episodes! (with the Whole Staff!)

Memes to End Abortion (formerly "Dank Pro-Life Memes"):

https://www.facebook.com/MemestoEndAbortion

Pro-choice groups we mentioned who are worth following:

Center for Reproductive Rights

ANSIRH: Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health

Jessica Velenti

Jen Hamilton

Chapters:

00:00 Introducing the argument we're responding to

06:05 Steel-manning the pro-choice argument

12:36 What do pro-life and pro-choice people mean when they use the term "anti-sex"?

20:12 Why pro-life organizations should stop bringing LGBT politics into their events

22:18 Subdivisions within conservatism

25:11 More reasons why some pro-choice people think pro-lifers are "anti-sex"

30:02 Responding to the steelman arguments

41:58 Conversation starter idea

44:40 Counter-examples

47:25 Counter-examples to the counter-examples

49:54 On the rape exception

53:26 Both sides sometimes use the word "sex" in simplistic, unclear ways

58:30 We need to ask more questions

1:02:20 We need to have conversations in-person more often

1:04:32 Helpful pro-choice people to follow

Host: Josh Brahm

Guest: Monica Snyder

Audio/Video Editors: Joshua Head, Josh Brahm

Publisher: Ellen Campbell