In my estimation the best debate advice is that never given. People should say whatever they want whenever they want to say it and however they wish to say it. Answer every single question or none at all, hurl insults, slather them in flattery, make polite logical arguments or spend hours making emotional pleas while quoting The Bible. (yes I'm an Atheist) I for one am beyond sick and tired of any and all forms of speech control or advice, just say what you wish to say whenever you wish to say it and say it fearlessly. All other debate advice is a gag order that forces people to be less than honest. I have spoken.

You took the words right out of my mouth; there’s no obvious reason for the default position to be life beginning at birth or viability.

Makes me sad because they were all making money off of this somehow, and no one talks about it.

I support the following legislation: If the fetus is potentially viable, the only way to legally end a pregnancy shall be birth, either vaginal or surgical. A fetus with conditions incompatible with life must be given palliative care. Potentially viable is defined as youngest surviving preemie minus 14 days.

I'm a very religious person, but I love this channel. It has taught me to defend the cause in secular terms and with just plain simple logic and reason. Thank you so much, it's been so helpfull.

This account should receive more attention. I myself am religious, but the secular perspective offers some of the best arguments for the rights of the unborn .

At 24 weeks or after birth, disconnecting is possible without the baby dying. The baby can be transferred to the care of another person. Choosing death when transfer is a possibility should be criminal. It gets more complicated when disconnecting requires one person to die. Similar ethical dilemmas apply to conjoined twins, in many cases. But all this also comes down to a worldview of human beings as inherently autonomous. We're not. We're a social species. The ethics of interconnection are much more complicated than the ethics of autonomy.

Bodily autonomy ends when exercising that bodily autonomy intentionally harms or intentionally ends the life of another.

Commenting to hopefully boost. Thanks for pointing this out.

I don't think they realize they go full mask off when they say "no one can use my body against my will". That would include babies. Thus there would be no need to assert "fetus aren't babies". Yet predictably, they stick to this narrative, parroting it off dozens of time during conversations as if it matters. If it "doesn't matter" then why do they feel the need to highlight this supposed irrelevant information that "fetuses supposedly aren't babies"?

The human embryo parasite is injected into the woman by the male where it finds a cell that it can dump its contents and grow. If it quacks like a duck, and acts like a duck there’s a good chance it’s a duck. There’s nothing condescension about starting life as a parasite. All life begins with an organism that lives in or on an organism of another, and benefiting by deriving nutrients at the other's expense. Why are you threatened by a descriptive word that accurately describes life? I have the same issue explaining why humans are primates. For some strange reason people are offended by a taxonomical classification. It’s weird how people think humans are superior and deserve their own classification. Humans are superior thinking animals, a cheetah is a superior runner, a hawks are superior flyers. Humans are special at being the top of the food chain despite our many fragilities, but we haven’t always been. For the majority of our existence humans were pathetically weak prey for other animals

My response to those signs is “Possibly. One in six pregnancies ends in abortion, so sure. But I hope for someday that not to be the case. I hope for someday that slogan not to be a foregone conclusion.”

One of the many reasons that I am pro-life is because my mom had more than one abortion and at least once was assaulted and forced into it. She also said she cried when she saw ultrasounds of her grandchildren because she wasn’t aware how active fetuses are. It was her biggest regret in life.

Strong social support is the key. Also, thank you for mentioning coercion. Many girls/women are pressured, coerced, and even forced to abort. Coercion does not equal choice.

Yes, pregnancy is difficult, but it is Temporary. Women need to be reminded of this. You're not pregnant forever. Most women are only pregnant for 9 months. 9 months is not that long. Having my son, 28 years ago, made me more Pro-Life. Watching my belly move during pregnancy was the most Awesome thing I ever experienced. Children are a Blessing!

George Tiller performed many late term abortions.

I don’t see how it’s a bad faith argument to state the fact that people who need abortions will suffer without them. It’s not a judgement or condemnation of your character like you’re making it out to be as much as it is a reality check of what you’re advocating for will inevitably result in. If the facts of the matter make you so guilty that you have to resort shutting down the conversation and outright reality denial when they’re brought up, then I fail to see how you have a whole KZbin channel dedicated to this topic.

That last comment is so important, thank you for expressing it. I get that people want abortion to be an option, but I think as a culture something is very wrong when women believe that abortion is their *best* option.

So basically “la la la not listening”

I wonder if pro lifers actually care that much about, you know, the children that were saved from death then birthed. Like are they having acess to healthcare? Or, you know, food... or even acess to their own mothers... those seem like more important.

Supporting abortion is an archaic religious position that claims "God doesn't put the soul in until birth". I'm an Atheist who understands the science which proves that the life of a new human organism begins at conception.

What’s ur thoughts on allowing ab0rtion if save the mother’s life??

PC: "If you were REALLY pro-life, you'd support XYZ issues." PL: "Interesting. Do you support XYZ issues?" PC: "Yes, of course." PL: "So you're pro-life then?" PC: "heck no. I'm pro-choice." PL: "...Interesting." *sips tea*

Love this!

Language control is a trait of a cult. Language control should not be a part of medical science.

I get so discouraged when I hear stuff like this because science has become so corrupted that we can’t even use it to defend anti-abortion arguments.

Absolutely insane. When I graduate and get my license in sonography I will absolutely be using the terms heartbeat and alive/viable when situationally appropriate. It's fairly common knowledge that early on the heart isnt done cooking. Doesn't make it not a heart. They're drawing arbitrary lines.

"We shouldn't say newborns have brains. The brain isn't fully developed until early adulthood. We should say 'neurological activity'."

This is willful ignorance. Statistics around this issue are unreliable because of low report rates. Also - you have no idea what that girl personally wanted, or what was medically safest for her body. What is your response to the 10 year old girl in Ohio forced to travel to Indiana? In the US, 1 in 9 girls age 10-19 experience SA. It’s near impossible to know the accurate numbers but many estimate that in the last 20 years, anywhere from 45-300 girls age 10-15 became pregnant. I have a feeling you will delete this but FACTS ARE FACTS

👏 👏 👏

Pregnancy can be very hard and very beautiful. No matter how hard my pregnancies were, my children deserved to have their lives respected.

I’m enjoying the snarky shorts 😆

Love this ❤ 💯 agree. Always be honest and truthful.

Thank you for such honest and candid feedback on this divisive issue. I think this is the right approach. It is difficult. Yet, abortion is so much, much worse. Please keep doing what you are doing.

Awesome video as always

I've never been pregnant, but if and when I do get pregnant, I hope that I have the strength to avoid drawing the conclusion from whatever negative experiences I have with pregnancy that abortion is okay.

I’ve heard of pregnancy experiences making someone who is pro-choice become pro-life but I haven’t heard personal accounts of it going the other way.

Queer, younger, mixed race, woman, centrist, spiritual with my own personal beliefs and no specific religion or tradition, anti-contraceptive and pro-NFP 💖

The ONLY legitimate argument for abortion is that the baby cannot be transferred to the care if someone else. That is, the mother can't just relinquish custody at 12 weeks gestation. After 20 weeks, the baby should be given a chance to fight for life, no matter how low the chances may be. After about 20 weeks, the mother CAN just relinquish custody.

If post-viability abortion was just labor induction, why would anyone oppose laws to protect babies born alive after abortions?

How did she not know until 31 weeks?

I’m not pro-life primarily because of science. I originally became pro-life because of my first time meeting my oldest two spirit babies, my twins, and them talking to me. It made me think about how much abortion hurts the soul of an unborn baby and how a part of their purpose is unfulfilled when they’re forced to choose a different parent or never incarnate because of grief. I believe you can talk to them about abortion, and they can forgive you for it and continue to bond with you because they’re not like an already-born baby. They are a soul at that time and don’t have the same lens as the average incarnated human. Although, I’m still unsure how I feel about the “permission to abort” thing. However, one day, I discovered this channel here, Secular Pro-Life, and it made me look into if I’m on the right side. I realized abortion also hurts women more than it helps, and I have a strong sense of moral justice. I try to make the most objective moral framework possible based on what benefits everyone the most for all parties involved as a whole. Now, I want to fight for the pro-life side because I believe in making the most beneficial society for all people. That’s my story. I feel I don’t fit in with conservative Christians at all, with beliefs in general but also am clearly not an atheist. Then I’m also anti-contraception and pro-natural family planning for all people. However, I’m still not sure where I stand on the whole issue of birth control being an abortifacient because it doesn’t appear there’s a definitive person to believe. Plus I believe in natural treatments for endometriosis and PCOS. I’m both of these things because I want the best for women and their mental and physical health. The rate of 25% pregnancy is a myth with proper instruction from medical providers. Typical is about the same as birth control pills. 92-94% perfect use is 98% or as high as 99.5% The only time where it can be harder is long-term breastfeeding.

Well said

I was/am profoundly affected by having a younger sibling who was born very prematurely. He's valuable, regardless of his level of development or his abilities. He's also a super cool and joyful person. 😊

I used to be largely apathetic to the issue and was pro-choice leaning as a result. Then, slowly, I started to see how many pro-choice arguments were shored up with bent truths and, in some cases, lies. Learning that it’s false that pro-life is only a religious based position and learning that science sides with life beginning at conception, these were the two biggest pieces of information that impacted me to learn more. From there it has just been an intellectual deep dive on the nuances of the issue and the more I learn, the more pro-life it makes me.

I'm not religious and not pro-life, however i do like pro-life people, and the arguments proposed in support of the embryo's life. My understanding of abortion is that it's a necessary evil, therefore it should be restricted and minimized. I think the pro-life arguments should become the mainstream in society, even within the pro-choice side. I've seen so many times pro-choice people make inconsistent or unethical arguments and i can't stand that they dismiss pro-lifers as religious nuts, so they don't have to engage with the argument.

I'm Pro-Life/Anti-Abortion for many reasons but, it's a personal issue for me largely because I'm also a lifelong Atheist. Abortion supporters frequently dismiss the Pro-Life position as being "just a religious belief" and I know that's not at all true and so I feel a personal obligation to speak up. Doing so makes me a target and gets me a lot of negative attention from secular abortion supporters and I see that as a very positive advantage. Other secularists who support abortion see my existence as a problem and target their attention on me in order to discredit me, malign me and even silence me and that let's me know they see me as a threat. In other words, they let me know my voice is important because my voice is influential specifically because I'm an Atheist... basically they're telling me I should keep talking because I'm making a difference.

Bringing up “lack of a heart” really only holds water if they are saying that pre-heart, abortion is okay but post-heart, abortion isn’t okay. But even when shown the gestational age when the heart is present, they still want abortion past that point. It’s a red herring.

The first example that comes to my mind of unintentional coercion is when doctors believe that they are merely providing information when they suggest abortion over and over and over again to expectant parents after an undesired, yet still addressable, diagnosis.

Ran into someone who believes that the maternal mortality rate is 1-20%. That's insane. The maternal mortality rate with good support and good health care is 3 in 100,000. Telling a woman that pregnancy will kill her is coercion.