Equal Rights Institute

Equal Rights Institute trains pro-life advocates to think clearly, reason honestly, and argue persuasively. THINK CLEARLY We want pro-life advocates to dialogue well with pro-choice people, and clear-thinking goes hand-in-hand with good dialogue. Even when two people are being polite, their conversation will get stuck if they can’t find clarity on where they disagree and why. We are going to help pro-life advocates to reason well about difficult arguments, but also to ask the right kinds of questions so they become better at understanding different views. REASON HONESTLY Part of reasoning well is being willing to evaluate arguments honestly. It is very easy to go into an argument with your conclusion already decided, but doing this opens yourself up to self-deception. We encourage pro-life advocates to be open-minded, even about abortion. While this may sound like we aren’t confident that abortion is wrong, it is quite the opposite. One should only exhibit stubbornness and an unwillingness to go where truth leads if you’re afraid you’re wrong. We want to see productive dialogue between people who disagree, and open-mindedness makes productive dialogue possible. ARGUE PERSUASIVELY Making good arguments is an important part of persuading someone that abortion is wrong, but there’s more to it than that. We want to train pro-life advocates to ask the right kinds of questions so they can learn what the person really thinks; when to speak, and when to listen; and learn how to explain their view in a way that the person will understand. We use speaking, writing, campus outreach, and soon an online training course to emphasize practical dialogue tips, relational apologetics, and rigorous philosophy. We believe that the pro-life movement becoming more loving and thoughtful is a necessary (although not sufficient) condition to change our culture enough to end legal abortion.