Comment Or Ask Questions on Session 6
Respond to Session 6 and Sign Up for JFA Updates via Email and/or Paper Mail using the JFA Updates page. Or, feel free to share a comment on this post below.
A Suggested Beginning for Your Response
“I agree that women’s bodily rights are important and that they are still being trampled on throughout the world. Domestic violence, rape, slavery. All of these practices are horrific and evil, and I stand with you against these harms against women.
So, for abortion to be made illegal, I agree that it would be a big deal, because we would be telling women there is something they can’t do with their body. We’d be restricting them. I can understand how this topic seems heavy and how the person who wants to restrict abortion seems unconcerned about how this is affecting a woman’s right to her body.
For it to make sense to make abortion illegal, abortion would have to be much more than removing a mass of tissue. If that’s all it was, a simple surgery to remove a mass, I agree women should be able to get that by law.
Let’s say, though, that the case I’ve made that the unborn is a human being with equal rights to the rest of us. Then the woman’s bodily rights matter, but there is another human being with bodily rights, too. So, then a law against abortion may still be unjustified, but it at least is within the range of being possibly a reasonable policy. Can we agree on that?” - Steve Wagner
Next Step: Conversation Starter for Session 6
Note: Some of the conversation starters from Session 1 and Session 2 and Session 3 and Session 4 and Session 5 may still be helpful to you for starting conversations.
Option 1: Continue Your Conversation from Session 1 (and Following Sessions)
If you used the conversation starter from Session 1, go back to the person you talked to and ask if he or she wants to continue the conversation. Ask if he or she agrees that generally speaking, a woman has a right to do what she wants with her body, and point out that this right has been trampled throughout history (and continues to be in the present day). Then ask if abortion is an important component of that right. Throughout the conversation, focus on the empathy we developed in Sessions 5 and 6 (meeting the “Relational Challenge”) as you dialogue with your friend.
Option 2: Share the It’s Her Body Article
Ask a friend to read the first installment of Steve Wagner’s “It’s Her Body” series. Use what you learned in Session 6 to create a productive conversation with your friend.
Option 3: Share Pages 8-9 from the JFA Brochure
We shared this conversation idea in Session 5, but it also can help you start with common ground in conversations about a woman’s right to her body. Use pages 8-9 as a springboard for conversation about what each of us can do to stop the violence against women.
Option 4: Share the ERI Video
Share the video below to start a conversation. We suggest prefacing the video with a warning about its graphic descriptions of abortion as well as a discussion of the content of the “It’s Her Body” series linked above.
Links and Additional Reading for Session 6 (“Do Bodily Rights Mean Abortion Is Okay?”)
A Response to the Strongest Violinist (including more resources)
See also Timothy Brahm's "Autumn in the Sovereign Zone" for a masterful response to another version of bodily rights argument. Mr. Brahm now works at Equal Rights Institute.
See also "Good Samaritan on Life Support" by 2010 JFA Intern Tony George.
The main url for discussion of the paper, www.jfaweb.org/DFG, is now being directed to this post.
NEW: See our “12 Minutes on Bodily Rights” post featuring ERI’s video with Timothy Brahm’s updated thoughts on how to respond to bodily rights arguments (“Blood Donation and Bodily Rights Arguments” ).
ERI’s response to “Abortion as Self-Defense” is also helpful.
Other Bodily Rights resources (including link to debate between Trent Horn and David Boonin)
A Good Conversation Is…A Window - Steve Wagner (Nov./Dec. 2013)
JFA’s “Invitation to Dialogue” Brochure (Download the Virtual Brochure or Request a Paper Version.
Steve Wagner, Common Ground Without Compromise (free eBook offer)
JFA’s “What Are the Facts?” page (Question 7 of this resource includes facts about how common it is for women to cite rape as a contributing factor to their abortion.)
Note: This post was originally written on 7/1/2020 for our first “7 Conversations in 7 Hours” series. It was updated on 7/29/2020. The “Suggested Beginning to Your Response” section was added on 8/26/2020.
Links: See the JFA Calendar to view a series currently in progress or coming up soon. // Register here. // Share the details or invite a friend.