Cecili Questions
1. For the pro-choice position, if the evidence can be established that the unborn is, in fact, a person, would you change the rest of your conclusions about the legal status of the unborn? And why is the unborn not a person right before birth and then suddenly a person after being born? If the infant actually isn't a person, why not infanticide?
2. If you have to have a job, healthcare etc do people in countries who suffer from war or unemployment are not eligible to have children?
3. Could you please talk about the side effects of contraceptions -- STIs, depression, cervical and breast cancer, blood clots/strokes
4. Infants enter the world 100% utterly dependent on mother to tend to their every need, not just during pregnancy. Would it not then appear that their first 9 months is an arbitrary span to be able to legally murder someone?
5. How can abortion be safe when paramedics show up at abortion centers and lawsuits are being filed due to injuries to women's bodies?
6. Cecili said re #3 that she considers a woman and a fetus are one person, and that person is a woman. How do you explain and deal with a male child in the womb? Isn't he obviously a separate person? 3. How should a person’s bodily autonomy, as in “it’s my body and my choice, impact the abortion question?”
7. Question on #8 for Cecili - I think the question was about a child being wanted, and if unwanted should that influence abortion decision? 8. How does a baby’s need to be love impact the abortion question?
8. Given that the word "person" means different things in different contexts to different people, how is it possible to have a national agreement that is binding on everyone?
9. Can the government address moral issues if there is a compelling argument that doing so is in the best interest of citizens?
10. Can religious views on abortion be taught in public schools?
11. In the same vein, must pro-choice views also be taught?
12. Why are you changing the subject from abortion to life conditions around the world?
13. I don't understand the difference between saying that "abortion is not a right" and "a woman should have the right to seek an abortion."
14. Why is the term "health" used so often when arguing in favor of abortion? It makes it sound like being pregnant is unhealthy.
15. Considering the massive advancements in medicine and the resulting increased clarity and understanding of the development of babies in the womb, shouldn't the underpinnings of the Roe v Wade decision be revisited?
16. Cecili dodged the question on when she believes a baby is considered a bonafide human deserving protection and having natural rights.
17. What is "reproductive justice"?
18. If the goal of Roe v Wade truly is about - "The right to privacy under due process clause" and not abortion, and the due process clauses' goal is that "it is a safeguard from arbitrary denial of life, liberty, or property by the government outside, then how is the decision from Roe v Wade protecting the due process rights of the unborn child from the arbitrary denial of life?
19. For both: Thanks to both of you! Do you think your political and moral disagreements about abortion stem most crucially from a disagreement about the ontology and moral status of the human fetus? If not, what do you consider the root of the disagreement?
20. Cecili: you inferred that the fetus is not a human person. How does location give us our human nature? Please explain. (We are human persons inside and outside the womb as living creatures reproduce our own species.
21. Cecili: In late term abortions, why not perform a C-section to the mother instead of killing her child?
22. Cecili: Are you comparing an organ "the womb" to a human life? Are you equating the womb to a human person?
23. Cecili stated that she wants to see less abortion. That being said, what action is she taking to promote adoption? Can we hear from both speakers their position on adoption and the value of adoption?
24. I feel that when you say you choose the rights of the woman over the rights of the pre-born baby, that you are making a moral choice with a dangerous precedent. Do you advocate for a mother's rights or a father's rights over their born children? Can they abuse or traffick their children if it benefits them? Where do you draw this line?
25. What of the rape conceived and their right to life. Note: I am rape conceived and an adoptee.
26. Why do our taxes pay for abortions for the rape and incest conceived? When every human life has value no matter way of conception.
27. Feedback to Cecili….you mentioned circumstance of conception as to the reason for abortion. Are you saying that a babe conceived in rape is less than a human and has less worth? If so, talk to me. I am a rape-conceived woman. I have worth and grateful that my mother found me worthy of life.
28. Feedback. Babies feel pain at 20 weeks. But not at 19 weeks. How is that?
29. Feedback. Cecili talks about eugenics and rights of minorities when it was Margaret Sanger who started Planned Parenthood and abortion clinics are found in minority neighborhoods
30. To Cecili: Do you think that there are good reasons to have an abortion and if so what are good reasons to have an abortion?
31. From what document is the quote from Pope St John Paul II you gave to support your argument for abortion? I ask this because in all his writings, especially his Encyclical, The Gospel of Life, he advocated a culture of life and the dignity of the human person from conception to natural life, which includes IVF, cloning, assisted suicide and death penalty. In this quote you read, he was stating precisely protecting the dignity of human life at all stages of life. This is also what Trent Horn was referring to when he said that he was for affirming the dignity of the human life. Please explain more clearly why you found that response confusing?
Seth Questions
1. Feedback for Seth on #6: arent there studies (eg Minn parental notification law a long time ago) which show unplanned pregnancies go down when a law limits abortions? 6. What if making abortion illegal forces some women into dangerous back-alley abortions? Should make back-alley abortions less likely.
2. Could you please talk about the side effects of contraceptions -- STIs, depression, cervical and breast cancer, blood clots/strokes
3. With the US having the highest childbirth mortality rate in the developed world (26.4 per 10,000), forcing women to give birth is dangerous. If we believe that life is precious, how can we justify endangering living people? Is one life (the fetus) worth more than another (the mother)?
4. With more than 3 million cases of miscarriage per year, many women are unable to carry a baby to term. If that is a valid human life, is the woman involved in the miscarriage a murderer? Has she committed manslaughter?
5. Is a woman having a hysterectomy or a man having a vasectomy different from a woman having an abortion if a potential life is equated with the lives of born individuals?
6. In a Christian context, we are we all not sinners in need of forgiveness? All sins are equal in God's eyes. If someone has had an abortion, as wrong as I feel that may be, they are still loved by God and forgiveness is certainly available just like it is with all of us who sin.
7. What about in-vitro fertilization? Clearly, it would be wrong to destroy any fertilized eggs in an IVF clinic, since those eggs are people, but what of the fact that without being implanted in women's bodies, those eggs will never develop? Is it morally acceptable to leave those egg-people in a freezer for their whole lives, or should we compel some people to carry them to term?
8. Cecili brings up a good point in how regulation doesn't always bode well for the thing being regulated. As she said 30% of illegal abortions went up in Texas when abortion was illegal there. My question to Seth is that based on his stance on being pro-life I'm inferring that you are a conservative. And in being a conservative how do you justify regulation of woman's reproductive choice. The regulation does not work it allows the black market to thrive as evident to the statistic Celia brought up. A good example of this would be also alcohol probation. That didn't work it allowed a black market selling alcohol and allowing gangsters like Al Capone to thrive. How can regulation for woman be a good thing if regulation before has failed? Regulation of abortion will allow a base for black market abortions leading to more deaths.
9. Given that the word "person" means different things in different contexts to different people, how is it possible to have a national agreement that is binding on everyone?
10. If a fetus becomes defined as a person, will it have the same rights before it is born as after? Will it be counted in the US Census and acknowledged as a dependent by the IRS?
11. Can the government address moral issues if there is a compelling argument that doing so is in the best interest of citizens?
12. Can religious views on abortion be taught in public schools?
13. In the same vein, must pro-choice views also be taught?
14.What are the unintended consequences of allowing abortion on society and culture?
15. Considering the massive advancements in medicine and the resulting increased clarity and understanding of the development of babies in the womb, shouldn't the underpinnings of the Roe v Wade decision be revisited?
16. For clarification, is the pro-choice position regarding the status of the fetus as being no different from that of the womb based on the fetus' dependence on the mother? If so, how is this different from a patient's dependence on his or her anesthesiologist during the patient's surgery?
17. How does the pro-life position view termination of ectopic pregnancies? These pregnancies are not viable. If we make abortion illegal, how do we justify termination of ectopic pregnancies without forcing the state to protect the rights of one people group (the post-born) over and above another people group (the pre-born or unborn)?
18. Question for Seth Gruber: Is the psychology of being considered "alive" not considered?
19. For both: Thanks to both of you! Do you think your political and moral disagreements about abortion stem most crucially from a disagreement about the ontology and moral status of the human fetus? If not, what do you consider the root of the disagreement?
20. What about adoption as the only viable alternative to abortion.
21. How should we punish women for having abortions?
22. Feedback: Seth Gruber has been laying out an argument, not addressing the questions.
Christian Club Questions
1. Can we make peace on this issue by defining the unborn as more than fingernails but less than human?
2. Comment: It is an illusion that we are the same person from conception to death. I think our rights renew themselves every morning based on our close resemblance to the person we were yesterday. (Reminds me of Kafka's "Metamorphosis," a piece of fiction that is for the most part irrelevant to the topic today.)
3. If it becomes possible to implant a human embryo into another species and have it develop to the point that it is born as a human infant, what rights does it have before and after birth?
4. If the scientific and legal understanding of "person" are fundamentally different, can we resolve the tension by changing our vocabulary?
5. Comment: Some speakers are co-opting "pro-life" to mean care for all humanity, but that is not what today's forum is about.
6. Comment: Although the government cannot legislate conscience, it can and should legislate in accordance with the collective consciences of its citizens.
7. Comment: Question 5 is dangerously close to opening a discussion of eugenics. 5. How would cases of fetal deformities, Down Syndrome, and pregnancies from rape, affect the abortion issue?
8. Comment: I think public schools should advocate for adoption services like a Crisis Pregnancy Center as an alternative to abortion. Do this within the context of Health Education.
9. Comment: I agree with some of her concerns about social justice. I think some pro-choice people are anti-immigration.
10. Pope Francis for President. :-)
11. Are any of today's speakers willing to discuss the issues regarding frozen embryos?
12. Comment: She makes a reasonable pro-choice argument.
13. Feedback….please slow down. Thanks.
14. Question on number 5. Why do you list rape and incest with downs syndrome and fetal deformities. Are not rape and incest conceived babies "normal". 5. How would cases of fetal deformities, Down Syndrome, and pregnancies from rape, affect the abortion issue?
15. What does the manner of conception have to do with anything?
16. Feedback. Talk to me. I am a rape-conceived woman. Punish the rapist. Or in my case…I have forgiven him.
17. Question: Why have I not heard one thing about adoption from either side.
18. QUESTION FOR BOTH. WHY NOT TALK ABOUT ADOPTION
19. Feedback. Next time you have a pro-life and pro-choice forum I'd like the opportunity to tell my story of gratitude and healing. I am a pro-life speaker with Lutherans for Life. I am a grateful adoptee who was conceived in a negative way….but was given life and later met my biological family.
20. Feedback….talking about options must also include conversations about adoption.
21. Feedback! To the organizers and two speakers of this event. I wanted to simply thank you for today. I had to leave early but didn't want to go without saying this. Great forum! -Adriana S. (pro-life chick in the brown hat in the second row)
22. Do either of you believe in Jesus Christ? Do either of you believe Jesus Christ defeated Death and rose from the Dead?
