Right to Life Radio

We are back from hiatus! Life Report welcomes some returning faces and some new ones! Gabi Vehrs and Liz Goddard are back to discuss why we are pro-life. Executive Director Michael Salinas joins Liz to discuss the mission statement of Right to Life of Central California and how this shapes the organization's outreaches. Find out how you can get involved at the end of the episode. www.LifeReport.org Life Report is produced by Right To Life of Central California www.RightToLifeCA.org www.40DaysFresno.org

Join the discussion at http://ProLifePodcast.net/199 Life Report welcomes Abby Johnson! Abby talks about leaving Planned Parenthood and what she is doing now to help end abortion.  Check out Abby's organization "And Then There Were None" at http://www.attwn.org Purchase her book "Unplanned" http://www.unplannedthebook.com/ Life Report is produced by Right to Life of Central California. For more information visit http://www.LifeReport.org or http://www.RightToLifeCA.org  

Host Josh Brahm and guests Eric Scheidler (Pro-Life Action League) and Timothy Brahm (Justice for All) discuss speaker Phil Plait's speech on not being a jerk when talking to people with different views.  Eric Scheidler is the Executive Director of Pro-Life Action League; dedicated to saving unborn children through non-violent direct action. See more at: http://www.prolifeaction.org Timothy Brahm is a Training Specialist at Justice For All. See more at:http://www.jfaweb.org Life Report is produced by Right to Life of Central California. Visit their website at http://www.RightToLifeCA.org

Josh Brahm interviews Jonathan Keller from California Family Council and Megan Almon from Life Training Institute to discuss the pro-life bill that just failed to pass a committee in Sacramento. The goal of the bill was to prevent sex-selection abortions in California.

Post YOUR dialogue tips at http://ProLifePodcast.net/196!   Josh interviews Justice For All trainer Timothy Brahm and JFA volunteer Anthony Trent on the subtle things they're doing lately in dialogues about abortion that seem to be making them more productive.

Secular Pro-Life West Coast Representatives Monica and Ellen join Josh to discuss the Justice For All seminar they attended, and how they felt as atheists among Christians.    They also discuss how the pro-life movement could be more welcome to atheists and when it's appropriate for Christians to evangelize their atheist acquaintances or friends.

Steven Ertelt from LifeNews.com discusses his list of pro-life pet peeves with Josh.   While obviously not all pro-life advocates do these things, many do, and Steven argues that we will be more effective as a movement if we eliminate these bad habits.

Comment on this episode at http://ProLifePodcast.net/193! We're interrupting our series with Steven Ertelt to give you an update on the Supreme Court case, Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores. Notre Dame Law grad John Gerardi and Jonathan Keller from California Family Council explain the case and what happened during the oral arguments. Questions: 1: Where are we in this case right now and how did we wind up here? 2: One of the issues in this case is whether or not a corporation should be considered a "person." Many people think it's crazy to call a corporation a person, that it just protects the rich and helps them get richer. What are your views on that? 3: What were some of the highlights from the oral arguments? 4: Is this about religious freedom or is it about the rights of the poor employees against their corporate employer? 5: How do you think the court will rule and why? 6: Where does the religious freedom road lead if Hobby Lobby loses this case?  

Steven Ertelt from LifeNews.com discusses his list of pro-life pet peeves with Josh.   While obviously not all pro-life advocates do these things, many do, and Steven argues that we will be more effective as a movement if we eliminate these bad habits.

I spoke last month at the Students for Life of America Regional Leadership Summit at UCLA. I spent the first 54-minutes speaking about bodily rights arguments, and you can download that audio here. I spent the last 24-minutes talking about life-threatening pregnancies and taking questions.   My thinking on this subject is heavily influenced by my friend Trent Horn at Catholic Answers. Trent has done a lot of research and great thinking on this subject, and the material I presented is largely based on what Trent has written on the subject that I subsequently agreed with.   After arguing that we should treat both mother and child as patients and that in late-term situations, we can usually save both, I explain that there are still some cases where we cannot save both, particularly in tubal pregnancies.   I respond to the concern that tubal pregnancies aren't really that risky, and offer a real-world example when it was also justified to put an innocent human being's life in perilous risk.

Post your comments at http://ProLifePodcast.net/191.   Steven Ertelt, Founder and Editor of LifeNews.com, shares his expertise on the relationship between the Girl Scouts of America and Planned Parenthood.    He also explains why the Girl Scouts have sent a threatening legal letter to LifeNews.com.   Finally, Steven and Josh discuss the boycott and whether or not local Girl Scout groups should be boycotted.  

Josh concludes his interview with Jojo Ruba, former staff member of the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform and Executive Director of Faith Beyond Belief. After talking about the mission of Faith Beyond Belief, Josh asks a follow-up question from the previous episode, where Jojo made a comment about pro-lifers needing to be "more offensive." Josh asks, "How can you tell whether you should be more offensive or less offensive when talking to pro-choice people?" Afterwards Jojo and Josh answer a listener mail question from Mark in Hawaii: "I'm a new listener, and I'm trying to figure out exactly what your views are regarding human development and when a person comes into being and should be granted human rights. Most importantly and perhaps most difficult, when do you believe God endues a body/soul carrier with a soul in human fetal development and what are your reasons for that?" The episode includes a discussion of the Equal Rights Argument that Josh and the Justice For All team have been using lately, and what Jojo and Josh think about animal rights.

Josh interviews Jojo Ruba, former staff member of the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform and Executive Director of Faith Beyond Belief.   After talking about the pro-life presentations that have been protested and censored by Canadian pro-choice activists, Jojo answers the 9-question Life Report Questionnaire that has been answered by many other pro-life leaders in the past. I altered it a little for this interview, taking out the questions on stem cell research and euthanasia to focus more on the graphic pictures debate and how pro-lifers should treat pro-choice people.   I love this quote from Jojo, in regards to what he does when he's talking to a pro-choice person: "I say a little prayer, and the prayer is this: 'Father, show me how I can love this person today.'"   Questions:   What did you get in trouble for as a child? What is your favorite movie, and why? What has been the pro-life movement’s greatest victory (or victories) so far? What has been the pro-life movement’s greatest failing or weakness? Graphic Pictures: Should we use them, and if so, how, when, and where? Is there a difference between showing non-graphic but disturbing images in public (like the human trafficking truck) and showing graphic images of abortion in public? How should pro-lifers interact with those who are pro-abortion-choice? What kind of tips are you offering students you train on how to treat pro-choice people with respect? What single thing should pro-lifers be doing that most are NOT doing right now?

It's Gabi's farewell show! So for something special, Josh and Gabi discuss the 21 most important lessons she's learned about abortion dialogue while working with Right to Life of Central CA and Justice For All.

After shooting the Life Report episode on arguments for embryonic stem cell research, Dr. Buratovich graciously stuck around 37-minutes to answer more questions! This audio includes my new favorite fact about early human development!   Questions:   1: Ronald Bailey has argued that since somatic cell nuclear transfer can transform a nucleus from an adult cell into an embryo, then every cell in our body is a potential embryo. Since we do not get upset about all those cells we lose when we sneeze or scrape our knees, we shouldn’t get upset about the death of a bunch of embryos. I train people to respond to that by saying they’re confusing parts with wholes and talk about what an organism is. How do you respond?   2: Some argue that embryos are like acorns as opposed to oak trees. The loss of a majestic oak tree is a genuinely sad, but an acorn? We trample hundreds of those while playing with our kids at the park and think nothing of it. So people argue that embryos are similar, in that they only become valuable when they grow up. How do you respond to that argument?   3: Respond to the more intelligent pro-choice argument that would say that sentience or some other capacity is a necessary condition for being valuable.   4: But if self-awareness really is what's important, then it seems like the pro-choice person could respond by agreeing that the threshold of self-awareness isn't epistomologically knowable, but that doesn't mean that that threshold doesn't ontologically exist. Then they could do what Boonin and Singer do and just draw the line several weeks before that threshold could possibly exist. How would you respond to that person?   5: The early church made a distinction between abortion after quickening (the maternal sensation of fetal movement), which was viewed as murder, and abortion before quickening, which was not viewed as murder. Is the pro-life movement inconsistent with early church teaching? 6: How would you argue that the unborn is a living, human organism?   7: Clarify how the mother's uterus communicates with the embryo, signalling it to the optimum location to implant.   8: Can we use dead embryos to ethically make embryonic stem cell lines?   9: Should people freeze their baby’s umbilical cord blood as a deposit on future research?