Notes for "7 Conversations in 7 Hours - Session 6"

Comment Or Ask Questions on Session 6

Respond to Session 6 and Sign Up for JFA Updates via Email and/or Paper Mail using the JFA Updates page. Or, feel free to share a comment on this post below.

 

A Suggested Beginning for Your Response

“I agree that women’s bodily rights are important and that they are still being trampled on throughout the world. Domestic violence, rape, slavery. All of these practices are horrific and evil, and I stand with you against these harms against women.

So, for abortion to be made illegal, I agree that it would be a big deal, because we would be telling women there is something they can’t do with their body. We’d be restricting them. I can understand how this topic seems heavy and how the person who wants to restrict abortion seems unconcerned about how this is affecting a woman’s right to her body.

For it to make sense to make abortion illegal, abortion would have to be much more than removing a mass of tissue. If that’s all it was, a simple surgery to remove a mass, I agree women should be able to get that by law.

Let’s say, though, that the case I’ve made that the unborn is a human being with equal rights to the rest of us. Then the woman’s bodily rights matter, but there is another human being with bodily rights, too. So, then a law against abortion may still be unjustified, but it at least is within the range of being possibly a reasonable policy. Can we agree on that?” - Steve Wagner


 

Next Step: Conversation Starter for Session 6

Note: Some of the conversation starters from Session 1 and Session 2 and Session 3 and Session 4 and Session 5 may still be helpful to you for starting conversations.

Option 1: Continue Your Conversation from Session 1 (and Following Sessions)

If you used the conversation starter from Session 1, go back to the person you talked to and ask if he or she wants to continue the conversation. Ask if he or she agrees that generally speaking, a woman has a right to do what she wants with her body, and point out that this right has been trampled throughout history (and continues to be in the present day). Then ask if abortion is an important component of that right. Throughout the conversation, focus on the empathy we developed in Sessions 5 and 6 (meeting the “Relational Challenge”) as you dialogue with your friend.

Option 2: Share the It’s Her Body Article

Ask a friend to read the first installment of Steve Wagner’s “It’s Her Body” series. Use what you learned in Session 6 to create a productive conversation with your friend.

Option 3: Share Pages 8-9 from the JFA Brochure

We shared this conversation idea in Session 5, but it also can help you start with common ground in conversations about a woman’s right to her body. Use pages 8-9 as a springboard for conversation about what each of us can do to stop the violence against women.

Option 4: Share the ERI Video

Share the video below to start a conversation. We suggest prefacing the video with a warning about its graphic descriptions of abortion as well as a discussion of the content of the “It’s Her Body” series linked above.

 

Links and Additional Reading for Session 6 (“Do Bodily Rights Mean Abortion Is Okay?”)

Note: This post was originally written on 7/1/2020 for our first “7 Conversations in 7 Hours” series. It was updated on 7/29/2020. The “Suggested Beginning to Your Response” section was added on 8/26/2020.

Links: See the JFA Calendar to view a series currently in progress or coming up soon. // Register here. // Share the details or invite a friend.