Podcast recap: “It’s about the babies, not your sex life” with Equal Rights Institute
Josh Brahm of Equal Rights Institute invited me to record several podcast episodes with him. This episode was loosely based on my previous post “It’s about the babies, not your sex life: 5 examples.” You can watch/listen to the full episode here or read the summary below.
Key Takeaways
- Most pro-lifers are against abortion because we believe abortion kills valuable human beings, not because we want to control other people’s sexual behavior.
- It’s important to consider whether our own views are falsifiable. Test your perspective by asking “What evidence would change my mind?”
- Before reacting to someone, we should take time to ask clarifying questions and make sure we accurately understand what they think.
Summary
Josh and I analyzed the common pro-choice accusation that pro-lifers don’t truly care about saving babies and instead want to control people’s sex lives. Many pro-choice people reject the core pro-life premise that abortion kills a valuable human being. But then they make the mistake of assuming pro-lifers also don’t sincerely believe this premise. And if we aren’t motivated by protecting human beings, why would we put so much effort into stigmatizing and outlawing abortion? If you erase a major foundation of our perspective, a lot of our behavior will understandably make little sense.
Is there evidence suggesting pro-lifers primarily want to control people’s sex lives?
We spent some time trying to steelman the pro-choice “anti-sex” accusation. Some people who oppose abortion also oppose hormonal birth control. Some object to public schools implementing comprehensive sex education. Many who think abortion should generally be illegal still support exceptions in cases of rape. Some pro-life organizations intertwine their opposition to abortion with critical views on LGBT issues. For these and other reasons, people outside the pro-life movement may look at these different contexts and conclude they all stem from one single broader anti-sex worldview.
What do pro-choicers mean by “anti-sex”?
Josh and I paused to consider the different ideas people may have when they describe someone as “anti-sex.” We point out that the “anti-sex” accusation goes beyond assigning pro-lifers private perspectives. The claim is that pro-lifers want to use laws against abortion to punish people for casual sex by forcing them to continue unexpected pregnancies.
Is there evidence suggesting pro-lifers primarily want to protect embryos and fetuses?
We reflected on our own experiences with many pro-life activists and leaders, who don’t hold this “anti-sex” mentality. We pointed out misinformation in the “anti-sex” examples given above, most notably that the vast majority of pro-lifers support contraception. Pro-lifers who oppose specifically hormonal birth control usually do so because they believe it prevents implantation, and see it as a type of abortion. Debates over public school sex education are often debates about the relative roles of parents and educators in children’s cultural upbringing. And while we estimate that most pro-life activists oppose a rape exception, we discuss how supporting a rape exception can stem from emphasizing the morally relevant distinction between people who choose to undertake risks and people who do not, regardless of whether the risky behavior is sex or some other action.
We also discussed evidence that seems to falsify the idea that pro-lifers are primarily trying to punish people for having the “wrong” type of sex. Pro-lifers are often more, not less, upset when married women seek abortion, even though these women got pregnant through the “right” type of sex (heterosexual sex in a monogamous marriage). Pro-lifers also oppose abortion in cases of IVF, even though those cases involved no sex at all. They oppose forced sterilization of both men and women. They support men paying child support, which would be a way to decrease the burden for women having these children.
Finally, we talked about how people in good-faith conversations can minimize miscommunication. We encourage people to ask clarifying questions, such as “What do you mean when you say ‘anti-sex’?” We should all be trying to get to the point where we can describe the other person’s perspective in a way that they respond “Yes, that’s what I think.”
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