Recap: Connecticut speaking trip
Last week I gave three different presentations in the span of about 48 hours in Connecticut:
- Overlooked Findings of the Turnaway Study to the University of Connecticut Students For Life club,
- Building Bridges to staff of multiple New England pregnancy resource centers, and
- Deconstructing Three Pro-Choice Myths to the members of Choose Life at Yale
This is the first time I’ve presented on college campuses since I got protested at University of Portland, and I wondered if we’d see a repeat. The University of Connecticut did ask the pro-life club to have mental health resources available in case students found Overlooked Findings upsetting, and the Yale students’ posters advertising Myths did get torn down. But ultimately there were no disruptive attendees at the presentations themselves. Everyone was thoughtful and respectful.
So I’d say the trip was great. I armed undergrad and grad students with rhetorical strategies and thought-provoking talking points (and the citations to back them up). I held an extensive, detailed Q&A for PRC staff eager to connect with their clients (and to make the pro-life case to their friends in very pro-choice Connecticut). And I decompressed between events by listening to favorite songs while driving everywhere in misty rain along wooded winding roads. Very pretty.
We ask all attendees to fill out a two-question survey: (1) what were your favorite aspects and (2) what could we improve. We get so much positive feedback. Some favorites:
- “Very concise and easy to follow. We will definitely use what we learned today in the future.”
- “Loved the section on building bridges to pro-choice moderates. It’s so important because I’ve found many are far closer to pro-life views than they even know.”
- “This talk takes some fear away from confrontation and being vulnerable.”
- “Enjoyed hearing fresh perspectives; enjoyed learning new tools; it was refreshing to listen to views outside our own echo chamber!”
- “Would love an even longer presentation.”
^This last comment came after I presented a 90-minute version of Building Bridges followed by an hour of Q&A. Maybe we need to develop it into a half-day workshop.
Meanwhile, respondents’ suggestions for improvement centered around me talking too fast (even in New England! lol) and, interestingly, asking us to role play pro-life/pro-choice conversations with attendees. It’s a teaching tool we could certainly offer. SPL staff will start brainstorming the best way to incorporate this; if you have any specific suggestions, please email me.
As a bonus on this trip, I got to meet several important co-activists in person for the first time, including a long-time Live Action staff writer, the Executive Director of the Family Institute of Connecticut, and the most recent presidential candidate for the American Solidarity Party. SPL’s network continues to grow.
Thank you so much for sponsoring these trips.
You’re helping us train activists across the country to advance secular arguments against abortion, welcome in non-traditional pro-lifers, and build diverse pro-life coalitions.
Help me keep activating pro-lifers by sponsoring trips like this one. Travel expenses (flights, hotel, rental car) totaled less than $1,600. If you’re able to help with these kinds of expenses, please donate here:
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