How should I respond to my pro-choice co-worker?

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diana_leslie

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I have a friend at work who sits near me, and we talk quite a bit about all kinds of things. Not long ago we had a spirited discussion about abortion in the middle of the workplace. He is strongly pro-choice; in fact, his mother told him that she almost aborted him and it was hard for her to decide to keep him. Somehow, this makes him stronger in his pro-choice convictions.

I want to politely send him some information that might open his eyes to the reality of abortion. He is half African-American, and I was thinking about sending an email with a link to the RagingElephants.org website which aims to expose the genocide of Planned Parenthood toward African-Americans. The problem is, I only have his work email.

Do you guys agree with my idea? Have any other ideas or information to give him? Thanks.

Diana Leslie
 
you shouldn’t send email to work anyhow your company probably frowns on personal emails at work. Perhaps a better tactic would be to say at a non-heated time (when you are not detracting from your jobs) I am so glad you are here and that your mother made the right choice to protect your right to live, our world is richer because of you. The key I think is always going back to human dignity and the right to life.
 
I agree with the above. Abortion is a very hot topic, especially in the work place, and adding a racial element to it will only intensify it. Stay firm in your convictions and testify by your example, but be careful. Even things you think may be innocuous may not be so to others.
 
diana_leslie said:
I have a friend at work who sits near me, and we talk quite a bit about all kinds of things. Not long ago we had a spirited discussion about abortion in the middle of the workplace. He is strongly pro-choice; in fact, his mother told him that she almost aborted him and it was hard for her to decide to keep him. Somehow, this makes him stronger in his pro-choice convictions.

I want to politely send him some information that might open his eyes to the reality of abortion. He is half African-American, and I was thinking about sending an email with a link to the RagingElephants.org website which aims to expose the genocide of Planned Parenthood toward African-Americans. The problem is, I only have his work email.

Do you guys agree with my idea? Have any other ideas or information to give him? Thanks.

Diana Leslie
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I was deeply moved by Gianna Jessen’s story and she is an eloquent speaker on this topic(. youtube.com/watch?v=kPF1FhCMPuQ)

Some people are hardened on the topic of abortion and feel it is their right. The fact that this is a work relationship and he is clearly pro choice, even after knowing he was almost aborted, it so very sad. I would be careful in the work environment in sending any information via work email, it may violate some workplace policies. You certainly can tell him to look into these sites. Keep him in your prayers for a conversion of heart.
Pax
Roisin
 
You could do what the pro-choicers always do, and tell him that, as a man, he has no right to have any opinion on abortion :tsktsk: (yes, I’m being facetious).

In Christ,

Ellen
 
Roisinbud said:
I was deeply moved by Gianna Jessen’s story and she is an eloquent speaker on this topic(. youtube.com/watch?v=kPF1FhCMPuQ)

Some people are hardened on the topic of abortion and feel it is their right. The fact that this is a work relationship and he is clearly pro choice, even after knowing he was almost aborted, it so very sad. I would be careful in the work environment in sending any information via work email, it may violate some workplace policies. You certainly can tell him to look into these sites. Keep him in your prayers for a conversion of heart.
Pax
Roisin
Click to expand...
Thank you very much for the information and the link. That is an incredible story.

You guys are right; I need to be careful in the workplace. But I think I might find some other way to reach out to him by just mentioning these websites or writing him a handwritten note.

You see, he promotes Planned Parenthood all the time at work. He even asked someone if they wanted to go on a tour. I’m thinking I might take him up on that and get an insider view…
 
diana_leslie said:
Thank you very much for the information and the link. That is an incredible story.

You guys are right; I need to be careful in the workplace. But I think I might find some other way to reach out to him by just mentioning these websites or writing him a handwritten note.

You see, he promotes Planned Parenthood all the time at work. He even asked someone if they wanted to go on a tour. I’m thinking I might take him up on that and get an insider view…
Click to expand...
I agree with a previous poster about not adding the ethno-racial element. I myself am Latina, and while I understand and believe that pro-choice elements are targeting my people, i have to say that much of the literature on this topic (in print & online) seems totally contrived. I’m not saying it is, I’m just saying it looks like a calculated attempt to appeal to communities of color. My experience is that it’s not terribly effective nor persuasive (folks tend to look upon it suspiciously).
However, I do recommend the Feminists for Life website. It’s a totally secular approach to pro-life arguments. And it has an answer for every argument that Planned Parenthood gives about being pro-woman and pro-family.

My coworkers are overwhelmingly pro-choice. I work in an industry that attracts people of left-leaning politics. And they haven’t heard yet that you can be left-leaning AND not want to terminate human offspring. That’s where I come in. 🙂 My favorite go-to argument:
  • You believe that legal, no-restriction abortion is a necessity to empower women in our society? Well, upwards of one-quarter (23-24%) of all diagnosed pregnancies in the US end in elective abortion. How is that a sign that women are empowered? That to me is a sign that women are in distress in our society!
Praying for you & your co-worker, and keep fightin’ the good fight!!!
 
I’m not sure how comfortable you feel with approaching the issue philosophically, but the case against abortion is fairly straightforward and simple. Dr. Peter Kreeft has a wonderful way of getting at the issue, and you can find it on his website (peterkreeft.com) and I believe he has a couple of books on the issue. He lays out four possible circumstances:

(1) A fetus is a human being and you know that it is.
(2) a fetus is a human being and you do not know it.
(3) a fetus is not a human being and you do not know it.
(4) a fetus is not a human being and you know it.

On (1), abortion is obviously tantamount to murder of an innocent. But if that is true, than one either has to say that murder is not morally wrong or that abortion is not morally permissible. If a person affirms the former, I can only say that the person is morally blind.

On (2) and (3), abortion is no different than gross negligence of human life. Consider, for example, if I were on a hunt and saw a rustle in the bushes. Suppose also that I had no means of really knowing whether or not the thing in the bushes was an animal or a fellow hunter. If I were to shoot despite not knowing for sure that it was an animal, I would be negligent of my fellow hunter’s life even if it really was an animal. So, the only moral option would be not to shoot as long as I am in a state of ignorance as to the nature of the thing in the bushes. From this analogy, it is plain that abortion should be condemned if it is the case that we are unsure about whether or not the fetus is a human being or simply a mass of cells.

The only possible case in which abortion would be permissible is (4). But the fact is that we have absolutely no evidence that tells us a fetus is not a human being. Indeed, we have evidence to the contrary. It is blatantly obvious, at least, that biological life begins at conception. At conception, the fetus has it’s own, uniquely human genetic code and thus an internal principle of growth. It is nothing other than a developing human being, only differing in degree from the new-born, the toddle, adolescent, and adult. Thus, it must be substantially human. At no point in time after conception is it possible to point to a formal change from one kind of thing to another. Conception is this type of change. Given that we need this formal change in order to attribute humanity to a thing, and the only time this type of change occurs in the development of human life is at conception, it follows that we should attribute humanity to the fetus. Otherwise, the attribution of humanity to any subject whatsoever would be totally arbitrary (and therefore meaningless). So abortion should logically be considered the killing of a human being.

So your friend can only possibly support abortion if he has pioneered some new and unheard of research that proves definitively that fetuses are not human beings. If he says he has, then we can only pray that he be loosed from such delusions.
 
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