Rebekah Dyer
How Feet Work Changed Four Volunteers
How Feet Work Changed Four Volunteers
Andrea Thenhaus
"This Conversation Has Opened My Eyes."
"This Conversation Has Opened My Eyes."
Justice For All
Spring Update
Spring Update
Justice For All
A Conversation, a Seed Planted, and a Life Saved
A Conversation, a Seed Planted, and a Life Saved
Kaitlyn Donihue
Bridge to Healing
Bridge to Healing

Rocky Mountain Collegian covers CSU Outreach

JFA staff and volunteers are currently in the midst of a 3-day large-format exhibit outreach, creating dialogue with students at Colorado State University (April 24-26). The Rocky Mountain Collegian covered the first day of the outreach event, yesterday. Click here or on the link below to read the full article, which features quotes from JFA Trainer Certification Program Director, Catherine Wurts.

Please note that several mistakes appear in this article.  For clarification, see below.

If you saw one of JFA's large exhibits at CSU this week, click here to share your opinion or get more information about any of our exhibits.

Points of Clarification

1) JFA’s first public exhibition at CSU was not last year, but was in 2002. However, our first time showing the “Stop and Think” exhibit was last year.
2) Zach Lee-Watts is a JFA student volunteer rather than a staff member. He is with the JFA team reaching out at CSU this week. 
3) JFA's updated online Fact Sheet reports 926,200 abortions per year in the U.S. (based on a 2014 Guttmacher Institute study).  The paper version of the Fact Sheet used at the CSU outreach had not yet been updated, as the new numbers were just released in March.  The old paper version stated that 1.06 million abortions take place per year in America (based on a 2011 study by the Guttmacher Institute.)  An updated printable version is also available at the link above.
4) To explain the discrepancy between the Guttmacher Institute statistics we report, and the CDC statistics reported in the article, one needs only look in the “Limitations” portion of the CDC study linked in the article. It states:

"The findings in this report are subject to at least four limitations. First…CDC is unable to obtain the total number of abortions performed in the United States. During the period covered by this report, the total annual number of abortions reported to CDC was consistently approximately 70% of the number recorded by the Guttmacher Institute, which uses numerous active follow-up techniques to increase the completeness of the data obtained through its periodic national census of abortion providers… for 2013 CDC did not obtain any information from California, Maryland, or New Hampshire."

A New Advocate in Forty-Five Minutes

Impact Report, April 2017

By Grace Fontenot, JFA Intern

Grace (right) engages Bryan (left) in conversation at Nicholls State.

“I used to be pro-life, but then I came to college.”  A boisterous young man was loudly proclaiming his pro-choice views and started to draw a crowd.  As I engaged him in conversation, I learned that his name was Bryan.

A few minutes later, Bryan was actively persuading his friend DJ to be pro-life.  This almost immediate transformation was one of the most extraordinary things I’ve witnessed at a Justice For All outreach event.  How did it happen?

Bryan’s dramatic entrance took place as I was standing by our “Should Abortion Remain Legal?” poll table at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana, in March.  After he introduced himself, he explained his view further:

Bryan:  I used to be pro-life, because that’s how I was taught growing up.  But when I left home, one of my professors said, “You go to college to learn how to think for yourself.”   That influenced me a lot.  It’s not that I think abortion is a good thing now.  I don’t.  But I do think it should be legal in the first trimester.  Specifically, it needs to be legal for victims of rape.

I listened carefully to what Bryan shared and began to discuss his view with him.  About ten minutes into my conversation, I asked Bryan a simple question.  I had no idea at the time, but that question would be the catalyst for Bryan’s change of heart.  In fact, Bryan’s response to it proved to bring new energy to the whole outreach event!  I simply asked:

Grace:  Bryan, have you ever seen images of abortion?

Bryan:  No, I haven’t.

Grace:  Would you be willing to view them?

Bryan:  Sure.

I opened the Justice For All Exhibit Brochure and showed him an image of a nine-week-old aborted baby.  Bryan’s face fell.  He was so shocked that he immediately became even more loud and expressive than he had been previously, which drew the attention of other students who were passing by. 

I went on to share with Bryan that approximately 3,000 babies are aborted every day in the United States.  As we talked about Bryan’s concerns, I also clarified that only 0.5% of women having abortions cite “rape” as the “most important reason” for their abortion.  (When women can select more than one reason, the percentage who cite rape or incest as one reason for their abortion is less than 1.5%.  For sources and more detail, see JFA’s “What Are the Facts?”)

“This girl...she changed my mind in like forty-five minutes, and I’ve been out here for two hours now!”
— Bryan

In the midst of our forty-five minute conversation, I had the opportunity to share much of JFA’s training material with Bryan.  I “trotted out the toddler” to help him see that the central question related to the morality and legality of abortion is, “What is the unborn?”  I also walked him through the biology of human development from conception, and we discussed philosophical arguments regarding whether or not the unborn is a human being with equal rights to the rest of us.

As he learned more, Bryan began asking questions about why abortion looks so violent.  I took out the “What Are the Facts?” sheet to show Bryan medical descriptions of the procedures used to perform abortions at different stages.  As we read through these descriptions, Bryan was so horrified that he lost all composure.  He told me that I had completely changed his mind and walked over to sign the “No” side of the “Should Abortion Remain Legal?” poll table.  He then turned to me and said:

Bryan (right) engages PJ (not DJ) in conversation at Nicholls State.

Bryan:  My girlfriend and I had a pregnancy scare a month ago, and I know this right now: If she got pregnant today, we are keeping that baby, no matter how hard it might be!

Bryan then started to converse with Ashlen (the president of Nicholls Students for Life) and Jon Wagner, a JFA staff member with a decade of outreach experience.  While they talked, I invited a student named DJ to stop.  DJ started out very apathetic about abortion.

DJ:  Well...honestly, it’s sad to say, but if I messed up and got my girlfriend pregnant, I’d want to have abortion as an option.

Bryan must have overheard us talking, because he enthusiastically joined the conversation and began asking DJ about his thoughts and for permission to share images of abortion with him.  Bryan began to use the same conversational tools that he had picked up from me.  He “trotted out a toddler” and shared biological evidence for the humanity of the unborn.  I was amazed!

“I’d so much rather know than not know.”
— DJ

DJ began to follow Bryan’s logic and ended up becoming pro-life.  At the beginning of this second conversation, DJ had made it clear he wanted abortion as an option if he “messed up.”  After our conversation, it was encouraging to hear him and Bryan reflecting on things so differently than just a few minutes before:

Bryan:  You know, man, I’m so glad I stopped here today and talked to Grace.  I’m so glad that I know the truth about abortion now. 

DJ:  Yeah.  Honestly, I am too.  I kind of wish I didn’t...but at the same time, I’d so much rather know than not know.”

After talking with DJ, Bryan didn’t stop.  Soon, he began pulling other students, friends, and even strangers into conversation with himself, me, and other JFA staff members.  He probably encouraged at least ten people to stop, saying:

Bryan:  This girl...she changed my mind in like forty-five minutes, and I’ve been out here for two hours now!

Because he was so passionate and vocal, Bryan ended up drawing even more people than he had directly invited to talk.  His zeal was contagious, and his passion prompted other students to listen.  He began changing their minds. 

Bryan was doing an incredible job, especially considering his only training had been one conversation with me.  Still, he was easily becoming frustrated when people couldn’t seem to track with what he was saying.  I saw a need for Bryan to receive more formal dialogue training.  Later, I was happy to see Jon Wagner step into a conversation Bryan was having with another student, this time named PJ.  Jon suggested slowing the pace down and provided a good model of finding common ground, listening to understand, and asking thoughtful questions.  Bryan exclaimed at one point, “Oh man!  I like how you said that!” 

It left me speechless to see Bryan’s transformation from pro-choice to completely pro-life, even to the point of immediately jumping into our outreach.  At times, it made me uncomfortable to see him nearly shouting in disbelief.  Bryan’s response was shock, horror, and a burning zeal to bring awareness as a means of saving as many lives as possible.  This stood out in stark contrast to the apathy I have been used to seeing.  But perhaps, in that sense, we should all be a bit more like Bryan.  After all, if there were thousands of already-born people being systematically killed every day right under our noses, then wouldn’t we respond just as he did?  Bryan’s response was a vivid reminder to me of the horror of abortion and the urgent nature of creating more conversations about this injustice.

Note: Joanna Bai contributed to this report.

Comment: 

In this Impact Report, Grace Fontenot illustrates how some simple tools, including questions, pictures, and a calm demeanor, can help a person change his or her mind on abortion.  In this case, the person with whom she was speaking not only changed his mind but became immediately active in changing the minds of others! 

Notice the different levels of experience featured in this story.  Grace has served as an intern with JFA for about eight months and is still raising her support.  Bryan had virtually no experience as a pro-life advocate before starting his own conversations using what he had learned from Grace.  Jon used his decade of outreach experience to be helpful to Bryan at an opportune moment.  In all of this, the message is clear: anyone—with any level of skill or ability—can engage people in conversation and help them change their minds about abortion.  This is especially true if the pro-life advocates work as a team.  We hope the example set by Grace, Jon, and Bryan will give you courage this month to join them in speaking up for those who have no voice.  Our April Resource Bulletin can help!

- Steve Wagner, Executive Director

Is this common surgery helpful or harmful? (video included)

Here's an artist's rendering of a six-week embryo (aged from fertilization)*:

Here's a doctor who performed 1,200 abortions describing the abortion procedure used to remove this embryo from the mother's womb**:

Embryos this old or older are killed by this surgery (or another procedure) approximately 300,000 times each year in the US.  The vast majority of the time, the surgery is elective and sought for reasons such as feeling too poor or otherwise not ready to care for a child.  (See JFA's "What Are the Facts" to substantiate these claims from pro-choice or neutral sources.)

Whatever your view on abortion, since this surgery is so common, isn't it worthwhile to ask ourselves: Is this surgery truly helpful or ultimately harmful? 

What do you think? 

In addition to this question, we think these questions are worth considering and discussing:

  1. Can you identify with a woman who feels she needs abortion?  Can you put yourself in her shoes? 
  2. Does knowing the reality of what abortion is make the decision of whether or not to have an abortion harder or easier? 
  3. What do the facts demand of us when we seek to help our friends who have an unplanned pregnancy? 
  4. Is this surgery too common or do you think it's fine if it is common? 
  5. Should abortion continue to be legal at this stage and beyond?  Why or why not?

Note: This is one of a series of posts encouraging dialogue on abortion.  Whatever your perspective on abortion, please note that Justice For All promotes respect for people with differing views and condemns all abortion-related violence.  Please feel free to share this post on social media, and feel free to comment below.

 

* Embryo (2013, Maurice T. Wagner, All Rights Reserved).  See more pictures, video, and facts about the embryo and human development at our "What Is the Unborn?" page.  To see a photograph of the embryo at this stage, see Abort73.

** See video descriptions of the most common abortion procedures at our "What Is Abortion?" page.

5000 Conversations, Part 2: Everyday Life

Part 2: Everyday Life

Dear Friend,

In my February letter ("5000 Conversations in 2017 - Part 1: Outreach Events"), I suggested a few ways you can help us reach our goal of 5000 conversations in 2017, including joining us for a mission trip and connecting us to groups who can join us for outreach. 

There’s another way you can help us create more conversations: start your own conversations in everyday life.  Let’s be honest, though: discussing abortion in everyday life is scary.  We fear harming relationships with the people we love most.  We fear not knowing what to say.  We don’t know how to start the conversation.  Let’s talk about each of these challenges.

Starting Conversations with Friends and Family: Let’s Make Abortion Conversations Common

Instead of talking to strangers as we do at JFA outreach events (difficult enough!), the people with whom any of us are most likely to create conversations in everyday life are friends and family members.  Our cherished relationships are on the line.  Yet, in many cases it’s precisely because of the relationship that each of us can make a great impact on what our friends and family members think during a conversation.  Given the stakes, making a commitment might help.  Would you join me in setting a personal goal to create seven conversations about abortion in everyday life this year?  We can pray together for God’s help, and our team will do what we can to help, too.  If you report back to us, we’ll count your conversations as we assess our progress toward the 5000 target.

We also fear we won’t know what to say.  JFA can help with this.  Every JFA presentation and workshop equips audience members with the ideas and arguments they need to be able to defend the unborn in a winsome, persuasive way.  Our online resources do as well.  In fact, that’s the main reason we devote time to these activities even when we’re not able to follow them up with an outreach event.  We know that many pro-life advocates will never join us for campus outreach but nonetheless can create conversations on their own with friends and family.  We want to prepare them.

In many cases, the most difficult aspect of having conversations with friends and family is not the ideas and arguments—it’s getting the conversations started!  Many of you who support us would be willing to defend unborn children if the opportunity arose.  But the opportunity rarely arises!  Even as a full-time pro-life worker this is true of my experience in everyday life, so I am guessing it’s probably the case for many of you reading this letter, too. 

To meet this need, we’re experimenting this year with ways to turn our exhibits and other resources into conversation starters.  You’ll always find one new conversation starter in our monthly resource bulletin, “Making Abortion Unthinkable with JFA” (click here to see all of our resource bulletins).  In addition to ideas for starting conversations, you’ll also find new ideas each month in two other areas critical for making abortion unthinkable: praying for conversations and preparing for conversations.  Let us know what you think of this resource.

Each of our trainers will be working to personally create conversations during outreach events this year, and we’ll train hundreds of Christians to join us.  The result?  Thousands of conversations.  What we’re missing from this equation is you and thousands of other pro-life advocates who may never join us on campus, but who can nonetheless create conversations in their everyday lives.  Won’t you join us?   

In Christ,

Steve Wagner

Executive Director

Pray for Conversations: Steve Wagner and D.C.

Steve Wagner interacts with a student at a Fresno, California outreach.

Steve Wagner to Serve as Executive Director of Justice For All from Washington D.C.: Beginning in April 2017, Steve Wagner will make a permanent move to the Washington, D.C. area to continue to serve as the Executive Director of Justice For All (JFA) from there.  Steve is excited to begin building relationships to facilitate JFA's outreach work in the region, as well as to continue speaking and participating in JFA's outreach events nationwide.  Pray for Steve and the whole JFA team as they work to make abortion unthinkable by creating conversations and by training pro-life advocates to do the same.  While JFA will now have trainers focusing locally in four metro areas (Wichita, Dallas, Austin, and Washington, D.C.), and while we will continue to travel to other states and metro areas where we've forged major training partnerships (Colorado, Georgia, and a number of others), JFA is eager to build relationships with churches, schools, and organizations in any region where we are invited to speak to groups and facilitate outreach events with one of our three large exhibits or other outreach tools.  Contact Steve with questions or to connect him with friends in the D.C. area who would appreciate JFA.

Recent and Upcoming Events in NV, KS, LA, OH, OK, TX, and CO ; Photos ; JFA Prayer Team Updates ; Social Media Updates (FB ; Twitter)

 

Note: This is the "Pray for Conversations" portion of JFA's March 2017 Resource Bulletin.  Click here to see all Resource Bulletins.

 

Featured Resource: "What Do You Mean?" (Sept. 2016)

In “What Do You Mean?” (Sept. 2016), Rebecca Haschke described in word-for-word detail how the success of a conversation hinged on one clarification question — a clarification question you can easily learn to use yourself!  Both this one question and Rebecca’s presentation of the Equal Rights Argument throughout the conversation will help prepare you for starting your own conversation using JFA’s “MIA” exhibit panel (below)!

Read online or get a copy by mail (JFA Office: 316-683-6426).

Note: This post is the "Prepare for Conversations" portion of JFA's March 2017 Resource Bulletin.  Click here to see all of JFA's Resource Bulletins.

Featured Conversation Starter: MIA

We encourage you to use the “MIA” panel from JFA’s Stop and Think Exhibit to start a conversation.  The panel reads:

According to The Lancet, millions upon millions of girls around the world are missing due to sex-selective abortion and infanticide.  Are you saddened by this or do you find yourself indifferent?  Is this phenomenon an expression of women’s rights or a violation of women’s rights? 

To view the panel and share it on social media, use the buttons above or the links below.  Remember, the goal of our conversation starters is to help an average pro-life advocate to create a conversation about abortion in a natural, less-awkward way.  If you use this conversation starter, please let us know how it goes!

Share the MIA panel: @7conversations (Twitter) ; JFA "Start the Conversation" (Blog Posts)

Note: This post is the "Start Conversations" portion of the JFA's March 2017 Resource Bulletin.  Click here to view all of the Resource Bulletins. 

March 2017 Resource Bulletin - Printable Version

About the Making Abortion Unthinkable with JFA Resource Bulletin

For friends of JFA who ask, “What can I do to make abortion unthinkable?” this resource bulletin offers some answers.  Beyond supporting JFA financially, which enables JFA’s trainers and volunteers to create conversations that make abortion unthinkable at JFA’s events, you can PRAY for the conversations the JFA community is creating (including your own), PREPARE for conversations, and START conversations.

MIA : What do you think?

The images in this post are from one mysterious panel of Justice For All's Stop and Think Exhibit.  The female symbol is juxtaposed with the familiar acronym for missing in action, MIA, in pink.  Then the panel asks:

According to The Lancet, millions upon millions of girls around the world are missing due to sex-selective abortion and infanticide.  Are you saddened by this or do you find yourself indifferent?  Is this phenomenon an expression of women’s rights or a violation of women’s rights? 

What do you think?  Why?

Note: For more information about the claims made on this panel, see the Stop and Think Exhibit page.

Note: This is one of a series of posts encouraging dialogue on abortion.  Whatever your perspective on abortion, please note that Justice For All promotes respect for people with differing views and condemns all abortion-related violence.  Please feel free to share this post on social media, and feel free to comment below.

Links Related to My Interview with Alan Shlemon Today

Here are the links I mentioned on the STR radio broadcast a few minutes ago, along with some others that listeners might appreciate!

Here are some other links you might find interesting and helpful:

  • Dialogue Examples (30+ newsletters all featuring word-for-word conversations about abortion -- learn from our dialogue artists!)
  • JFA's Monthly Letter (packed with stories, tips, and reflections from JFA's outstanding team of dialogue artists)
  • JFA Mission Trips (if we aren't coming to your area soon, come to us!)
  • Invite a JFA Speaker (if we aren't coming to your area soon, help us come!)

Didn't hear the broadcast?  Click here to listen.

 

Live Interview Broadcast Today!

JFA Executive Director, Steve Wagner, will be interviewed Mar. 21st in a live broadcast with Alan Shlemon of Stand to Reason.  Listen to the interview in the first hour of STR's Live Call In Tuesday radio program  (4-5pm PST).  

Click here to listen live online.

5000 Conversations in 2017

Part I: Outreach

Dear Friend,

David, a volunteer at a JFA outreach event (left), creates a conversation with a student in front of the original Justice For All Exhibit. 

Since conversations about abortion are essential to making abortion unthinkable, we’ve set a goal of creating 5000 conversations in 2017.  Let me explain how we plan to accomplish this goal with God’s help.

You may be a JFA reader who already supports JFA sacrificially or who prays regularly for JFA.  Partnering with JFA in each of these ways is vital to creating conversations and making abortion unthinkable.  If you are helping us create conversations through your prayers and financial support, it is enough.  (Thank you!)  But you may want to do more. 

As we think about creating conversations about abortion, there’s an unavoidable challenge: abortion just isn’t a topic that lends itself to easy, everyday-life conversation.  It’s personal.  It’s sensitive.  It’s dark.  It’s troubling.  Many pro-life advocates fear conversations about abortion.  They fear they won’t know what to say.  They fear losing a friendship.  They fear offending someone unintentionally.  Opportunities to bring up the topic in a natural way are rare.  In this month’s letter, I’ll discuss one remedy we have for this challenge: JFA’s outreach events.  In next month’s letter, I’ll discuss our second remedy: JFA’s tools which help you start abortion conversations with friends and family. 

JFA Outreach Events Produce More Conversations Because Talking to Strangers Is Easier

Our outreach events, especially our large-scale events, are the easiest way for our staff and volunteers to start the conversation about abortion in a way that’s not awkward.  As the “Feet Work” part of our training program, these events create an objective spectacle that naturally invites consideration and comment from both volunteers and passersby.

The larger the group of volunteers joining us on campus, the more conversations these events generate.  Indeed, sometimes the crowd of volunteers itself becomes a part of the reason passersby stop to talk.  So, you can help us multiply the conversations these events produce by attending as a mission trip participant and using the event to talk to pro-choice advocates.

Here’s one more way you can multiply the conversations our outreach events produce: Introduce us.  We can produce more events and larger events if we meet college students who invite us to their campuses and high school teachers and administrators who invite us to train their students through a field trip to a JFA outreach event. 

Whether we are conducting large-scale outreach events (many trainers and volunteers in conversations) or filling in gaps in our schedule with smaller events (fewer volunteers), please pray that God will help us create 5000 conversations through these events in 2017.  Let’s pray also that God uses our conversations to make abortion unthinkable.

 In Christ,

Steve Wagner

Executive Director

P.S. To sum up, here are four ways you can help JFA produce the most conversations possible from its outreach events:

  • Attend a JFA mission trip.
  • Introduce us to one church.
  • Introduce us to one college student you know at a large public university.
  • Introduce us to a private high school (Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Evangelical, etc.), homeschool group, or college group which would like to invite JFA to train its students.

 

February 2017 Resource Bulletin

Making Abortion Unthinkable with JFA - Feb. 2017

 

Pray for Conversations

Recent and Upcoming Events (Partial List):  Please pray with us that God will cause hearts and minds to change as a result of conversations created by our staff, volunteers, and audience members:

  • 2/11/2017: Phoenix, AZ — Seminar at ASU
  • 2/12/2017: Las Vegas, NV — Seminar at UNLV
  • 2/13/2017: Phoenix, AZ — Outreach at ASU
  • 2/13-14/2017: Las Vegas, NV — Poll Table Outreach at UNLV
  • 2/15-16/2017: Las Vegas, NV — Original Large Exhibit Outreach at UNLV
  • March 2017: Staff will carry out many small-scale outreach events (KS, OK, TX, LA, VA).

List of All Recent and Upcoming Events & Photos from Recent Events & Staff Updates & JFA Prayer Team Updates

 

Prepare for Conversations

Featured Resource for Equipping Yourself:  During a conversation with two sisters at KU years ago, Steve Wagner saw first-hand the importance of asking clarifying questions.  He tells the story in his 2012 newsletter, “Yes=No.”  Read it online or call the JFA office to ask us to mail you a copy (316-683-6426).  From the beginning of the conversation to its startling conclusion, you’ll learn some of the questions you can use to build rapport early in a conversation.  These questions will also help you learn valuable information about the person with whom you’re speaking.  Hungry for more resources like this?  See our Dialogue Examples page.

 

Start Conversations

Featured Conversation Starter:  We encourage you to use the “Embracing Child and Career” panel from JFA’s Art of Life Exhibit to start a conversation.  See either our 7conversations Twitter handle or our Start the Conversation blog series for JFA posts about the panel that are easy to share on social media.  Remember, the goal of our conversation starters is to help an average pro-life advocate to create a conversation about abortion in a natural, less-awkward way.  Each is created with sensitivity to a pro-choice advocate’s worldview, language, and culture, and each generally comes in a physical version (paper, bookmark, brochure, shirt, sticker, etc.) in addition to the social media versions mentioned above.  In some cases, we’ll create these conversation starters from scratch.  In others, we’ll make use of great tools we and other organizations have already created.  In every case, we’ll alert you to the tool and show you how to use it.

About the Making Abortion Unthinkable with JFA Resource Bulletin

For friends of JFA who ask, “What can I do to make abortion unthinkable?” this resource bulletin offers some answers.  Beyond supporting JFA financially, which enables JFA’s trainers and volunteers to create conversations that make abortion unthinkable at JFA’s events, you can PRAY for the conversations the JFA community is creating (including your own), PREPARE for conversations, and START conversations.

JFA's Las Vegas Outreach Makes TV News

WARNING: Graphic Images Included

Click on the picture above to view news coverage of JFA's February 2017 outreach to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). (Warning: Graphic images included.)

Click on the picture above to view news coverage of JFA's February 2017 outreach to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). (Warning: Graphic images included.)

This past Wednesday (2-15-2017), the Fox5 Las Vegas news station covered JFA's outreach to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) . The video features JFA Training Specialist Rebecca Haschke.  Click on the image (right) to hear her share one reason JFA uses graphic abortion imagery.

The JFA team ended a busy few days with another outreach to UNLV on Thursday, after holding seminars and outreach events in both Arizona and Nevada earlier in the week.  To view JFA's events coming up next, visit JFA's calendar page. 

A Popsicle Poll (and a Conversation)

Impact Report, January 2017

Introductory Note: I'm eager to share this Impact Report with you.  Written by 20-year JFA veteran Tammy Cook, it allows you to see a model conversation unfold, nurtured through Tammy’s skillful choice of questions and information.  You get to watch a student rethink his position on abortion, and you get to see the JFA poll table, a stalwart conversation tool we’ve used since 2001, in a new twist that JFA trainers Jon Wagner and Paul Kulas came up with during a late-night run to Walmart.  The “popsicle poll” was one of the tools we used along with our large Art of Life Exhibit to start conversations about abortion at Oklahoma State University in November 2016.  Go to the photos page for the event to see these tools in action, as well as two other new twists on classic JFA conversation tools.  We turned one free speech board into a straw poll on the presidential election (we couldn’t help ourselves—it was election day), and we used another to ask people which particular abortions they thought should be legal, in terms of timing and circumstances. - Steve Wagner, Executive Director

Having conducted many campus outreach events in unpredictable weather, the JFA team has learned to make quick adjustments on the fly.  Our latest challenge?  How to keep poll table notebooks dry in the rain.  The notebooks allow students to sign Yes or No in response to our poll question, Should Abortion Remain Legal?  The poll is one of our best tools for starting conversations, so when it was raining at Oklahoma State University (OSU) in November, our team got creative.  Popsicle sticks and Styrofoam to the rescue!  Students could now vote by signing a Popsicle stick and putting it in either the Yes side or the No side.

During the lunch hour, “Hudson” stopped by to vote.  He placed a popsicle stick on the Yes side.  I thanked him for voting, introduced myself, and started a conversation:

Tammy:  I’m curious—do you think abortion should be legal through all nine months of pregnancy?

Hudson:  Well, I don’t know, but I don’t think the government should be in people’s lives. 

Tammy:  I would like to better understand your view.  Can you give me an example?

Hudson:  I don’t think the government should make a law that says a woman can’t have an abortion.

Tammy:  Ah.  So basically you’re saying that you don’t want the government to tell you what you can or can’t do?

Hudson:  Yes.

Tammy:  I can see that.  I agree that there are times when the government shouldn’t interfere with our choices.  For example, I think people should be able to choose if they want to go to college.  I do think, though, that the government should make laws that protect our citizens.  Would you agree with the laws that stop people from driving 100 miles per hour on the freeway while intoxicated?

Hudson:  Yes.

Tammy:  Why?

Hudson:  Because that’s not safe, and it would risk harming or killing other people.

Tammy:  I agree.  So, do you agree with the current laws that prohibit rape, murder, and theft?

Hudson:  Yes, I agree with those laws.  But when it comes to taking away choice, I don’t agree with the government taking away a woman’s choice.

Tammy:  Got it.  Let’s take a moment to talk about human beings and look at biological development.  When do you think we become human?

Hudson:  I’m not sure... maybe in the third trimester?

Tammy:  Okay.  So, do you agree with me that this is a human being?  [I pointed to the third-trimester fetus on page three of our brochure, pictured right.]

Hudson:  Yes.

Tammy:  Okay.  Let’s look at earlier stages of human development.  [I pointed to the first seven circles on page three.]  Would you agree that if the unborn is growing, it must be alive?  And if it has human parents, it can only be human?  And living humans like you and me—we’re valuable, aren’t we? 

Hudson:  Hmmm... [seriously contemplating what I’ve shown to him]

Tammy:  And did you know that from the point of fertilization, all that is added to the embryo is adequate nutrition and a proper environment?  Nothing essential is injected along the way to make an embryo into an organism.  So, if you and I are whole organisms now, the embryo must also be a whole organism at fertilization.  Would you agree?

Hudson:  Maybe so, but I still think abortion should be a woman’s choice because abortion is legal.

Tammy:  Okay, so it sounds like legality is important to you.  Let’s look at slavery, which used to be legal.  Should our country have kept slavery legal? 

Hudson:  No.

Tammy:  I agree.  We should restrict people from choosing to own a slave because that is a violation of human rights.  For the same reason, don’t we also have an obligation to restrict people from choosing abortion?

Hudson:  [pausing to think]

Tammy:  And I think it could aid our discussion if we include images of abortion.  Are you willing to view them?

Hudson:  Sure. 

Tammy:  This is what abortion looks like.  [I showed him an abortion image on page five of the JFA Exhibit Brochure.]

“I feel like I want to break the popsicle stick in half and put half in the Yes side and half in the No side..”
— "Hudson" (an OSU Student)

Hudson:  Wow, you’ve given me a lot to think about.  I see it a little differently now.  The slavery comparison was really helpful.  I’ve never thought about it that way before.  I need to go think about this.  I feel like I want to break the popsicle stick in half and put half in the Yes side and half in the No side.  Can I have one of those brochures?

Tammy:  Yes, absolutely.  Thanks for taking time to talk.

Our team had two wonderful days of outreach at OSU, even despite the rain.  And the popsicle poll brought a great response.  There were 190 people who voted Yes (abortion should remain legal) and 120 who voted No (abortion should not remain legal).  I spoke to about 25 pro-choice students over two days, and I saw more than half of those students rethinking their views like Hudson did.  Some even had a complete change of heart and agreed that abortion should not be legal.