“Do You Support a Woman’s Right to Choose?”

This morning as I was waiting to catch the train to get to work, I was approached by a guy named Robert Marshall, who is planning to run for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Roland Burris. He asked if I would sign a petition to put his name on the Democratic primary ballot.

So I asked him the first question I ask anyone who tells me he’s running for office:

Do you support a woman’s right to choose?

The first question I used to ask was: “Are you pro-life?” But I soon realized that this is the wrong question to ask, because then the person you’re talking to will automatically assume you’re pro-life, and so, to tell you what you want to hear, there’s a decent chance that if he’s pro-choice he’ll say “Yes” — which he could later try to justify by saying that he is “personally opposed to abortion, but…”

That’s why I think, “Do you support a woman’s right to choose?” is a much better question to ask. Then if the person is pro-choice, he’s more likely to give you an honest answer, because he’ll probably assume you are too. (And if, on the other hand, he is sincerely pro-life, he won’t be afraid to tell you.)

So, in answer to my question, he said he did, and we went on to have a short conversation that went something like this:

Me: So you support the right of a human being to kill another human being?

Him: No, I just think every woman should be able to make that decision for herself.

Me: Have you ever seen pictures of aborted babies?

Him: I’m a doctor. [!]

Me: So you should know that abortion takes the life of a human being.

Him: It’s not a human being. It’s a fetus.

Me: “Fetus” is just a Latin word that means, like, “little one” or something. What sort of being is it? A horse being? A gerbil being?

Him: OK, it’s a human being.

Me: So you support the right of a human being to kill another human being?

Him: It’s not a human being. It’s a fetus.

Me: But you just said ten seconds ago it was a human being.

Him: Have a nice day.

And then he walked away.

Related

• Unborn Children Really Are Human
• “Making the Case for Life” Webinar
• Free Sharing the Pro-Life Message Handbook

This entry is filed under Abortion, Law & Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.