Secular Pro-Life
  • Home
  • About
    • Meet The Team
    • Mission and Vision
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Stances
      • Abortion
      • Religion
      • Contraception
      • The Rape Exception
    • Terms and Conditions
      • Opt-out preferences
  • Content
    • Index
    • Blog
    • Presentations
      • A Secular Case Against Abortion
      • Building Bridges
      • Deconstructing Three Pro-Choice Myths
      • Overlooked Findings of the Turnaway Study
    • Research
      • Abortion Law and Abortion Rates
      • Abortion Law and Pregnancy Rates
      • Later Abortion
      • Embryonic Hearts
    • Collections
      • For the biology textbook tells me so
      • They can hear you
      • Parents can hear you
      • Our children’s heartbeats
      • Becoming Pro-Life
      • Ask An Atheist
      • LGBTQ and Pro-Life
      • Fixed that meme for you
    • Print Materials
      • 100 Pro-Life Sign Ideas
      • Overview of SPL
      • 3 Reasons to tell people you’re pro-life
      • How to talk (not fight) about abortion
      • Bridges PRC Curriculum
      • FAQ
      • Presentations overview
    • Store
  • Contact
  • Get Involved
    • Why support SPL?
    • Donor Opportunities
    • Volunteer Opportunities
    • Volunteer Survey
    • More Surveys
      • Why do you support SPL?
      • Best and Worst Abortion Arguments
      • “Ask An Atheist” Interview
      • Non-Traditional Pro-Life Survey
      • LGBT Pro-Life Survey
      • Parents experiences with prenatal screening
      • Your experiences with adoption
  • Donate
  • Search
  • Menu Menu

“Why don’t you block the pro-choice trolls?”

September 30, 2024/in Dialogue strategy, Uncategorized /by Monica Snyder

At SPL, we regularly get messages from followers asking us to block “pro-choice trolls.” Some thoughts.

Recognize the difference between a troll versus someone who is simply pro-choice and disagrees.

The pro-choice person disagreeing might not always be the epitome of honesty and politeness (neither are some pro-lifers), but there’s still a distinction.

There are no hard and fast rules here, but generally the more a person appears to be just trying to anger and provoke people, rather than engage in any substantial conversation, the more they lean toward the “troll” end of the spectrum. People who are making actual arguments (even if they make them emotionally) and sticking around to elaborate, discuss, cite sources, follow trains of thought, are more toward the “non-troll detractor” side of the spectrum.

We welcome discussion, disagreement, and engagement. You do not have to be pro-life to engage our accounts.

Even if someone is being a pure troll, it doesn’t necessarily mean we’d block them.

First, sometimes a single person goes through phases of substantial engagement to trolling to engagement again. Sometimes a troll evolves to engagement, and on rare occasions even starts to moderate their stances (depending on the quality of responses). These are other reasons to lean toward allowing engagement.

And even people who are always trolling can have uses. They can provoke thought, boost engagement, and prevent echo chambers.

Very importantly, they can also stand as off-putting and alientating examples of our opposition, giving moderate pro-choice people who are reading the comments (there are plenty of them, I assure you) pause, and opening the door a little for us to indirectly engage silent readers.

[Read more – Quick tips for making online abortion debates worthwhile]

Trolls can also inspire their opposition to action beyond online commenting, such as donating or volunteering, or just doing more research. It would be hard to measure how much SPL content exists because of “inspiration” from trolls. We’ve also had quite a few donations over the years in honor of specific trolls.

For all of these reasons, and perhaps more I’ve forgotten, we err on the side of not blocking “trolls.”


If you appreciate our work and would like to help, one of the most effective ways to do so is to become a monthly donor. You can also give a one time donation here or volunteer with us here.

Related Posts

Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Pinterest
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share on Reddit
  • Share by Mail
https://i0.wp.com/secularprolife.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/why-dont-we-block-trolls.png?fit=1080%2C1080&ssl=1 1080 1080 Monica Snyder https://secularprolife.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/SecularProlife2.png Monica Snyder2024-09-30 04:35:002025-07-09 17:39:54“Why don’t you block the pro-choice trolls?”

Follow via Email

* indicates required

Categories

  • Ableism
  • Abortion pills
  • Administrative
  • Adoption & Foster Care
  • Biology
  • Bodily Rights
  • Dialogue strategy
  • en español
  • Later Abortion
  • Legislation, laws, & court cases
  • Miscarriage & Pregnancy Loss
  • Personhood
  • Philosophy
  • Pro-Life Demographics
  • Rape Exception
  • Religion
  • Research
  • Speeches, Discussions, Presentations
  • SPL Emails
  • They Can Hear You
  • Top SPL Articles
  • Top SPL Graphics
  • Uncategorized
  • We Asked You Answered
  • Year In Review
  • Your Stories

Archive

It’s crucial that we demonstrate that anyone can–and everyone should–oppose abortion. Thanks to you, we are working to change minds, transform our culture, and protect our prenatal children. Every donation supports our ability to provide nonsectarian, nonpartisan arguments against abortion. Read more details here. Please donate today.

DONATE
SUBSCRIBE
© Copyright 2025 Secular Pro-Life. All rights reserved. Website Design by TandarichGroup

Related Posts

Rally with us in Phoenix! What does that say about us as a species? Ask a Pro-Life Atheist: Lesley C.
Scroll to top
Manage Consent

To provide the best experience, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent may adversely affect certain features and functions.

Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}
Want to receive our email newsletter?

We’d be happy to keep in touch. Subscribe for access to our newsletter and other updates.