Trent Horn’s Persuasive Pro-Life is a very accessible guide in defending the sacredness of unborn children. His practical solutions include: “Don’t engage in activities that will unnecessarily offend those who disagree. Consider the pro-life advocate who dresses up in a grim reaper costume, complete with skull mask and scythe, and holds an “I’ll see you in hell” sign at an abortion facility.” Now, in pro-life scholarship, it is rare that we’ve seen such weirdos, but unfortunately these are the kinds of folks that sometimes show up on my Facebook feed. The media loves to film them because it paints the pro-life movement as being anti-intellectual.
Horn provides the case that the pro-life advocate needs to have intellectual reasons to defend his position. “The most loving thing we can do for someone is to tell him the truth and prevent him from being deceived.” Horn encourages pro-life defenders to use questions. This is consistent with the tradition of Jesus and Socrates. Horn wrote, “When we make statements in conversation, they can turn unintentionally into speeches that get ignored. A better approach is to ask questions, because this lets us steer our conversations toward the truth without having to “preach” the truth to anyone.” Horn very practically encourages asking “dumb” questions to allow the pro-choice person to clarify their position. Some of those questions include:
1. What is abortion?
2. What is a child?
3. What is a human?
4. What is pregnancy?
5. What’s wrong with being pro-abortion?
6. Why is it wrong to kill a newborn baby?
7. What does abortion do to the fetus?
8. Is there a difference between a condom and an abortion?
9. Why is abortion a sad or difficult choice?
10. What is so upsetting about pictures of abortion?
Citing Steven Wagner, Horn suggest “agreeing whenever possible” when dialoguing about abortion. Perhaps one could find agreement by asking questions like: “Do you believe men should have the choice to abort their fetuses?” (Do you think men should be charged with the murder of a human being if they kill a pregnant woman’s fetus? Do you think the punishment should change if the fetus was unwanted? 3. “What do you think about aborting a fetus simply because she is female?” (Do you think a feminist can support abortion against female fetuses?) 4. “Would you prefer there were fewer abortions?” (Why? What is it about abortion that you find unpleasant?) 5. Should abortion be legal through all nine months of pregnancy for any reason? (If not, why not? Where do you think the cutoff should be, and why do you draw the line there?)
These type of agreement follows the example of Pope Benedict XVI who said that dialogue is not meant to create good relationships but that “the broader purpose of dialogue is to discover the truth.”(page 66) I thought one of Horn’s best portions in the book was dealing with the “TOLERANT.” Horn wrote, “Vice President Joe Biden said that while as a Catholic he personally believed that life began at conception, he could not impose that article of faith on other Americans.” Would we tolerate racism or slavery? Of course not. This reminded me a debate that Abraham Lincoln had with Judge Stephen Douglas that Francis Beckwith cited in Defending Life:
“In his failed 1858 bid for U.S. Senate seat from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln engaged in a series of public debates with his Democratic opponent Stephen . Douglas. Amongst the many topics which they disputed was the question of whether U.S. territories should be allowed by the federal government to permit slavery if they so chose. Douglas maintained that although he personally opposed slavery, he was not willing to require that the federal government eliminate slavery, for to do so would be to violate the principle of popular sovereignty- that local majorities should be permitted to vote on the issue free of all federal constraints.
But, as Lincoln pointed, out, when Judge Douglas says he ‘don’t care whether slavery is voted up or down,’…he cannot thus argue logically if sees anything morally wrong in it,… When Judge Douglas says that whoever wants slaves, they have the right to have them, he perfectly logical IF there is nothing wrong with the institution; but if you admit it is wrong, he cannot logically say that ANYBODY HAS A RIGHT TO WRONG.”
Horn wrote, “For those critics who say it is disgusting for pro-life advocates to show graphic images of abortion, I would refer them Naomi Wolf’s article, in which she candidly admits: The pro-choice movement often treats with contempt the pro-lifers’ practice of holding up to our faces their disturbing graphics. . . . But feminism at its best is based on what is simply true. While pro-lifers have not been beyond dishonesty, distortion and the doctoring of images (preferring, for example, to highlight the results of very late, very rare abortions), many of those photographs are in fact photographs of actual D & Cs; those footprints are in fact the footprints of a 10-week-old fetus; the pro-life slogan “Abortion stops a beating heart” is incontrovertibly true. While images of violent fetal death work magnificently for pro-lifers as political polemic, the pictures are not polemical in themselves: they are biological facts. We know this.” (page 91)
Horn encourages using graphics effectively. Although I’ve heard other pro-life apologists like Scott Klusendorf cite this Wolfe quote before, Horn’s book provides unique real life conversations. Because of Trent’s combination of practical apologetics and personal experience, I recommend every pro-life advocate to read Horn’s book. I give it 5 out of 5 stars.
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Top reviews from other countries
Steve Orbe
This is probably the best acquisition I have ever made
Reviewed in Canada on July 7, 2018
Héctor Guillermo Muñoz
Contundente, simple, e intuitivo
Reviewed in Mexico on January 1, 2017
Angie
Excellent! A must read for anyone with an opinion or a non-opinion on abortion
Reviewed in Australia on February 18, 2015