Right to Life Radio

Josh believes that some church leaders are silent about abortion because of ignorance, fear or apathy. Pastor Jim Franklin, pastor of Cornerstone Church in Fresno and Father Larry Toschi from Our Lady of Guadalupe in Bakersfield offer practical advice to pro-life congregants who want to communicate with their church leader about abortion. They close by offering practical advice to pastors on what they can and should do to be a pro-life pastor. (It’s not as much as you might think!)

Pastor Jim Franklin, pastor of Cornerstone Church in Fresno and Father Larry Toschi from Our Lady of Guadalupe in Bakersfield join Josh in the studio to talk about the HHS mandate forcing religious institutions to pay for sterilizations, contraception and the abortifacient drug, "ella."

A Catholic film studio called Spirit Juice Studios released a short pro-life film called "To Be Born" last June. If you haven’t seen it yet, you can watch it for free at ToBeBorn.com, or click the embedded video below. I had the opportunity to interview Ray Kaczmark, the director of "To Be Born," to ask him some questions about the movie.

Assemblywoman Dr. Linda Halderman comes to the studio to discuss a California Senate Bill that would allow non-doctors to perform surgical abortions. Dr. Halderman is a surgeon who can speak with expertise on the problems with the abortion training non-doctors across California have been given for over a year.

Josh, Liz and Andrew have been talking to pro-choice people for years, and every once in a while, they’ve come across some very unique arguments. We discuss how pro-lifers should respond when they come across arguments like these: "How do you know you’re human?" "If I have a tie, and giving you this tie will save your life, I still don’t have any obligation to give you this tie." "Personhood begins when you can visually determine the baby’s gender on an ultrasound." "Abortion is okay because the unborn will be reincarnated into a family that will love them." Correction from Josh: At 14:30 I said that in some states you not only have a moral obligation to dial 911 if you see a mugging going on in the distance, but also a legal obligation. I have not yet finished my research on this subject, but since recording this episode last year, my opinion has changed and I am no longer convinced that there are any state laws that requires anyone to dial 911 in this situation. Whether these laws should exist is another debate. Judith Jarvis Thompson does argue in her famous essay that everyone is morally obligated to do this. It would be the act of a "minimally good Samaritan."

During a recent episode of Life Report, Liz and Andrew became concerned by Josh’s statement that he has "pro-choice friends." Steve Wagner joins the show via Skype to talk about whether pro-life people should have pro-choice friends. What about people that say they’re "pro-life" but in action are effectively pro-choice?

We’ve interviewed Steven Ertelt from LifeNews.com before, but this time Steven came into the studio to discuss the state of the pro-life movement in 2012, personhood bills, and voting principles. Ertelt also gives us an exclusive on a very significant change in Steven’s personal life.

Josh has been doing research and making calls to experts about the front page Chicago Tribune story that there are thousands of unreported abortions in Illinois. After explaining what’s going on, Josh has some questions for pro-choice people to consider, as well as a warning to pro-lifers about how NOT to use this story.

This is the recording of a sermon Josh preached on January 22, 2012 at Free Grace Church in Clovis. After presenting three questions that Christians can answer to bring moral and theological clarity to the abortion issue, Josh takes a hard look at the main reasons that many Christians remain silent on the abortion issue, and how a proper understanding of the Gospel resolves all three of them. Josh closes with the three things that every Christians should do MINIMALLY about abortion.

Many people donate money to the American Cancer Society through their annual Relay for Life events. But the ACS funnels some of that money to killing human embryos for stem cell research. Should this fact cause pro-life people to donate to alternative cancer organizations? Josh thinks so, but Liz and Andrew disagree. Watch the biggest internal debate from Life Report season one.

Topic 1: Satirical Pro-Life Video Depicts Scarlett Johansson in KKK Robe for Promoting Planned Parenthood The Life Report team discusses this question: assuming for sake of argument that PP is in fact a racist organization, is it wise for pro-lifers to make satirical videos like this? Why or why not? Topic 2: Donald Trump’s Pro-Life Views are Grounded in Irrelevance The Life Report team explains why this has got to be the worst attempt ever at grounding the view that abortion should be legal. We close by explaining how YOU could use stories like this to start conversations on abortion with pro-abortion-choice people.

Listener Mail: 1: "Should we use a different word than ‘abortion,’ because that word can also refer to a natural miscarriage?" 2: "One of my friends at school is planning on becoming an embryonic stem cell research scientist. Is there a unique way you would discuss the issue of life with an abortionist or a stem cell researcher?" Includes a discussion on whether you should ever end a friendship with a pro-choice person or stem cell scientist. For more information on stem cell research, visit StemCellAnswers.org

Trent Horn, Director of Youth Outreach with Project Defending Life joins the show via phone to discuss whether emotionally appealing arguments are automatically fallacious. Josh and Trent have both recently been countered by debaters who immediately object whenever they make an argument that pulls on peoples heartstrings. Certainly some appeals to emotion are fallacious, but are all of them? What are common fallacious appeals to emotion that pro-lifers and pro-choicers make while debating abortion?

Jay Watts from Life Training Institute join the Life Report team via Skype for a round table discussion on whether modern day Planned Parenthood is actually a racist organization. Jay offers a brief biography on Margaret Sanger and the two most significant events in her life. In response to the question of whether Sanger was racist, Jay responds that "racist" is too limiting a term for her. Also discussed are the stats that seem to implicate Planned Parenthood in targeting minorities, as well as the location of some of their clinics in minority neighborhoods, and the Live Action Racism Project. Finally Josh offers an alternative explanation for the higher abortion rate in the black community and the location of some Planned Parenthood clinics in minority neighborhoods.

The pro-life community has been buzzing for a week now about the "180" documentary. If you haven’t seen it yet, you can watch it for free at 180Movie.com. I had the opportunity to interview Ray Comfort, the author and filmmaker behind "180," to ask him some questions about the movie. Questions: 1: Ray, how did you come up with the idea for "180?" 2: Was the hidden camera footage legal? 3: What are you hoping to accomplish with the film? 4: Now you often compare abortion to the Holocaust and a lot of pro-lifers do this. Ray, tell me how you respond to people like Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, who doesn’t believe that abortion and Holocaust are comparable? 5: What percentage of people interviewed, not just shown on the movie but interviewed, changed their minds on abortion? 6: You know I do a lot of work with Justice For All and we go out and we train pro-life people to dialogue with pro-choice people about abortion in the most effective ways possible. Would you encourage other pro-life advocates to use hypothetical situations the way that you did when talking to pro-choice people? 7: Your video showed graphic images of the Holocaust. What do you think about the need for pro-lifers to show graphic images of aborted children and how effective do you think they are? 8: A lot of Christian ministries avoid talking about abortion because it is a controversial issue. Based on your experience, do you find that it has been effective to get people to talk about their beliefs? 9: The first 20 minutes of your movie got a really good review from a pro-life non-theist on the secular pro-life blog. But that person was disappointed in the evangelism, last part of your movie. What do you think of non-Christian participation in the pro-life movement? 10: How can pro-life people get involved?