Peter is the Executive Director and Legal Counsel of the Thomas More Society. He was our Emcee last year and he is back again! Peter has extensive experience in the pro-life movement and we are honored to have him as our Emcee again this year. Here is some more about Peter:

Before joining the Thomas More Society, Peter was the founder and Executive Director of two pregnancy crisis centers in two suburbs of Chicago. At the invitation of Tom Brejcha, Peter joined the firm in 2008 and now directs the day-to-day operations. Originally a patent attorney, Peter now focuses his law practice on the protection of First Amendment rights and on end of life issues. After earning his bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering from Vanderbilt University in just three years, Peter attended the University of Notre Dame Law School on scholarship. Peter was elected a Trustee of the Village of Lombard, Illinois in April, 2011 where he currently serves his community. Peter is also a founding Board Member of Students for Life of Illinois.

We are happy to have Peter at the helm during this exciting and important event!

You can request your ticket for the banquet and learn more HERE.

This position will consist of two main functions: Campus Mentor and Programs Director.

In your role as Campus Mentor you will be a pro-life missionary to college campuses. You will mentor the pro-life students specifically on one campus (The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign). A Campus Mentor equips pro-life student leaders through development of leadership skills, education on life issues, and calling them to live into their gifts to build a culture of life on their campus.

In your role as Programs Director you will have responsibilities such as planning and executing pro-life events, support tasks for the Executive Director, fundraising and operations tasks.

Your time would be split roughly equally between these two functions.

This is a full-time, salaried position based at the Students for Life of Illinois headquarters in Champaign, IL at the University of Illinois, the largest university in the state.

Skills required: Highly organized, very outgoing, able to relate well to college students as a peer, good knowledge of pro-life issues, exceptional oral and written communication skills, planning and time management skills.

Students for Life of Illinois is the largest and most successful state-wide collegiate pro-life organization in the United States today. With a local, state-wide and national impact on the pro-life movement, SFLI is recognized as leading the way in saving lives and changing the culture.

Start Date: Late May – Early June

Application Deadline: May 1st

To apply, please submit your resume and a cover letter to johnpaul@prolifeillinois.com

Be sure to include names and phone numbers of two references, one professional and one personal.

Questions can be directed to johnpaul@prolifeillinois.com as well.

Advance the pro-life movement!

• Build your resume!

• Gain invaluable experience!

• Save Lives!

Apply to be an SFLI Intern for the summer of 2012!

You will build up the collegiate pro-life movement through research, media, video, activism and more!  You will make a real impact on the direction of the pro-life movement in Illinois.

Details:
Duration – Summer (approximately 2 months)

Compensation – Housing stipend

Starts – Beginning of June

Location – Champaign, IL

Requirements:Motivated, hardworking, pro-life college student.

Application:
Summer Intern Application

Send completed application questions, resume and cover letter to Emily@ProLifeIllinois.com

Deadline:
Monday, April 16th 2012

Mailing Address: 
P.O. Box 2001
Champaign, IL 61825-2001

Questions? Contact SFLI at 217.255.6675 or email Emily@ProLifeIllinois.com

Before you say to yourself, “surely, not I” – I really mean MOST people can’t do it. You and I are quite possibly some of those people.

However, as pro-lifers we tend to assume that everyone can face the truth and change if simply given the truth. We tend to assume that the truth will overcome those strong emotions. But what do emotions do?

Emotions motivate, they move people.

Does the truth really move people?

Nope.

An emotional response to the truth might move someone. But, the pure truth itself rarely does that for the average person.

There have been studies with people whose emotional centers of their brains had been injured. These people are given very basic decisions to make like which cereal to buy. We would think that given no emotion and pure reason that these people would quickly find the best cereal through the use of their reason. (not being swayed by an irrational affinity for a talking toucan, for example)

That doesn’t happen.

In fact, they are paralyzed by the decision and it takes hours to decide.

Why is this the case?

Emotion plays a huge part in our decision making process as humans.

So, what does this have to do with abortion?

Abortion is a very simple, black and white type of issue right? Yes, it is very simple in terms of biology. It is very simple in terms of morality and it is very simple in terms of law.

However, it is not at all simple in terms of emotion. The failure to recognize that fact is a detriment to our pro-life efforts.

Emotion is the gatekeeper to reason.

If we ignore emotion, we will only reach someone’s reason by chance.

In my last post, I talked about how my goal in talking about abortion is to discover and overcome what emotional roadblocks someone has.

So, in this post and the next, I’d like to talk about the different types of emotional roadblocks that you may encounter.  Here are the first two types:

Roadblock #1 – Identity

This is a really big one. I see this all the time.

“I’m not one of THOSE people” – “I’m ‘this’ type of person and ‘this’ type of person doesn’t oppose abortion.” – “Educated people are pro-choice (and I’m educated)” – “Pro-life people are all religious fanatics and I’m not a religious fanatic so I’m pro-choice”

This is probably the most common. It involves the lowest commitment to being pro-choice and the smallest amount of thought or reflection.

What this comes down to is repeating the common mentality. People want their concept of themselves to be consistent. If the culture says that the type of person they think they are is pro-choice then they conform.

This is why you hear so many people repeat the exact same phrases word-for-word when defending their position on abortion. They didn’t come up with those phrases. They probably haven’t even really thought about them. Generally, they just repeat them…

I’m sure you’ve seen this before.

This is also why you hear a lot of people who support abortion default to an anti-religious argument or to a political argument. This happens a lot to me and others.

You know how it goes… You’re just starting an abortion discussion and the first argument offered by your friend is that you shouldn’t force your religion on people. The irony is that the pro-choice person is usually the only one who brings up religion in these cases!

Why does this happen? Well, they just know that they aren’t religious and so they must not be pro-life.

Nobody wants to have an identity crisis. Challenging someone’s identity is a very emotionally charged experience. The fact is if you challenge someone’s belief about something when that belief is tied to their concept of their own identity, you are forcing a mini-identity crisis.

When someone is in a mini-identity crisis, they will not be thinking with reason, only with emotion. Rationalizations will abound to restore order to that person’s sense of self.

All of this has very little to do with reason and a lot to do with emotion.

Roadblock #2 – Personal Connection

Abortion is pervasive. It is, unfortunately, way too common.

Personal abortion stories are rarely talked about because of the shame and hurt associated with them. However, the mother is rarely the only one involved and sometimes these experiences are shared with close friends and relatives.

This creates a difficult emotional position for someone who has a close friend who’s had an abortion. The deep bond of friendship and love makes it very emotionally difficult to oppose abortion. This is because it is hard for many people to separate the act and the individual.

So, what ends up happening is that the friend of the post-abortive woman feels compelled to defend her BFF when the subject of abortion comes up. To assent to the logic and science that clearly show that abortion is wrong is to betray her friend. So, she defaults to defending abortion in order to defend her friend.

As you can see, this defense of abortion has nothing to do with reason or science and everything to do with emotions.

More Coming Soon

As you can see, these first two emotional roadblocks bypass reason. Maybe these are what’s behind some pro-choice people in your life who seem so utterly irrational?

I have a few more types of emotional roadblocks that I will discuss in the next post. For now, what do you think of the first two? Have you encountered these? Have you successfully gotten around the roadblock?

Please comment below!

This means that an employer must now, by law, pay for a plan that includes sterilization, abortifacients, and contraception. This is clearly a problem for those employers (and individuals for that matter) who morally object to sterilization, abortifacients, or contraception.

This causes serious problems…

Problem 1: No Options for You

If you morally or religiously objects to sterilization, abortifacients, or contraception, you have no options for health insurance. All private and public plans will cover these things.

If you are like me and want nothing to do with anything that causes an abortion because it takes a human life then you will be forced to pay for the destruction of human life in order to have health insurance.

Basically the government wants to force you to choose between your life and health and the life of pre-born children.

Actually, they don’t want you to choose. Obamacare’s individual mandate (if upheld in court) will force you to have to have a health insurance policy. So, if you are altruistic and are willing to give up your own health and life for the sake of the pre-born, you’ll have to pay a fine to the government to be allowed to do that.

Problem 2: No More Religious Freedom

This is the problem that you’ve probably heard the most about. Religious run schools, hospitals and charitable institutions will be required to provide ‘contraceptive services’ with their insurance plans. As you know, many of these institutions are run by religious organizations (the largest of which is the Catholic Church) that explicitly teach as a tenant of morality that these services are contrary to their belief and practice.

So much for the free exercise of religion…

These institutions could be fined $2,000 per employee per year that they do not provide this government mandated insurance. For Catholic Charities, which has about 70,000 employees and serves about 10 Million poor people each year that amounts to $140,000,000 a year in fines just because they want to practice their religion (the practice of which happens to help 10 Million people a year!).

Do you really think Catholic Charities can afford an extra $140 Million a year? The poor will suffer while suppliers of birth control get richer.

In conclusion…

1. Your rights are being thrown under the bus.
2. Freedom of Religion is being thrown under the bus.
3. Millions of poor people served by religious organizations are being thrown under the bus.

With this type of power, it won’t be long before direct abortions are mandated.

With this type of power, the ‘healthcare’ lobbyists that can front the most money will get special governmental treatment at our expense.

What You Can Do: Two things that take two minutes!

1. Contact Congress: Click here to easily send an email to your Representative in support of the ‘Respect for Rights of Conscience Act’
2. Share this post with your friends and family.

Thank you for standing with me for life, freedom and human dignity.

P.S. It appears that the ‘Compromise’ put forth by President Obama is merely a rewording of the initial rule.

Join us for Cupcakes at the Capitol on Wednesday, March 7th, 2012 in Springfield as we meet with pro-life lobbyists and state legislators to inform them about life-saving bills.

This is your opportunity to affect pro-life policy in Illinois! We are looking for students who are passionate about the pro-life cause and not afraid to share their beliefs and values.

A brief overview of the day:

- Meet with pro-life lobbyists in Springfield to discuss some of the key legislation that will be voted on this session
- Lobby State Senators and Representatives from your home district and tell them why they should vote pro-life
- Write follow up letters and have a round table discussion about your experiences
- Get to know other pro-life students from all around the state!

We are looking for students to bake and individually wrap approximately 275 cupcakes to be brought to the legislators and also students interested in lobbying on Wednesday, March 7th.

Join us in Springfield

To sign up, click here!

You must register by March 2nd. We hope to see you there!

We had Komen, whom pro-lifers have pushed to drop PP for a long time, finally drop their funding of the abortion giant. Then, after Komen was crushed by Planned Parenthood’s media machine, they gave in.

Now, Planned Parenthood is about $3 Million dollars richer and what was once a small but sweet victory is now bitter defeat.

There are both good things and bad things that happened here. I don’t want you to get discouraged!

So, here’s some of the good…

Good: Planned Parenthood showed their true colors. They knew about this news for 6 weeks before saying anything publicly. They used that time to plan the Komen take-down. It’s hard to uphold their ‘pro-woman’ image when they plan the take down of other pro-woman organizations that cross them.

Good: Other businesses and organizations who were paying attention will now think twice about ever affiliating with or supporting PP publicly.

Good: Now EVERYONE knows that Komen supports the abortion industry. (many people didn’t believe it before)

Good: Now EVERYONE knows that PP doesn’t actually do mammograms. (one of PP’s best marketing ploys is gone)

Good: The google search traffic for terms like ‘how many abortions does planned parenthood do’ tripled during the three main days of the controversy. I saw a noticeable increase in traffic and pro-choice interaction on whyprolife.com. The more people learn about PP the better.

Moving Forward

We must be careful to show PP’s true colors. What they did was clearly the premeditated bullying of another non-profit to get their money. We want people to remember that Planned Parenthood is not pro-woman and they are not going to play nice with pro-woman organizations that get in their way.

What do you think? Are there any other examples of good things coming from this situation?

Well, the Susan G. Komen Foundation is getting some backlash from deciding not to support abortion giant Planned Parenthood.

Please take just a moment to either call or write the Susan G. Komen foundation and thank them for removing their funding from Planned Parenthood. Let them know that this action will increase your support and good will towards their organization!

Phone: 1-877 GO KOMEN (1-877-465-6636)

Email: news@komen.org

This only takes a second and it is very important! Please call now!

Honestly, that is too many!

Every year, I go on this journey hoping that it is the last time I will have to travel to DC to protest the infamous legalization of abortion in the United States.

Next year, I want to go to DC to celebrate the fall of Roe v Wade!

How likely is that?

Not very…

Unfortunately, it seems that we are still a ways off from the fall of Roe. But, that being said, we have made great strides in the last 6 years. Legally, socially and culturally, we are better off than where we were when I made my first steps down the National Mall towards the Supreme Court.

We are getting closer.

We are not getting closer because of the March for Life, per se. We are getting closer because of people like you who after the March, come home and take action.

Lives are saved because people like you are getting involved. Volunteering, praying, organizing, donating, conversing with friends and supporting the youth.

Today, there are many more young people here marching with me than there are ‘adults.’

The youth are the future.

No, in fact, the youth are the present hope of our movement!

The youth are the key to the end of abortion.

If you are a young person, it’s time to get involved!

If you are an ‘adult,’ it’s time to support the pro-life generation!

Sign-up below to join the movement!

The last post in this series asked the question: “When you go into a conversation about abortion what are your goals?”

Thanks to everyone who posted your goals!

Your Goals

There ended up being 36 goals posted by people like you on the last article. Overall, these were very good. Thanks for your input!

I’d love to go through each of them, but I can’t really do all of your responses justice.  However, most of the responses fell into three categories.

1 – Quick Understanding – Give them all the truth, science, logic, philosophy now and hope they change their minds.
2 – Gradual Understanding – Through either listening or smaller goals bring people to acceptance of the truth, science, logic… over many conversations.
3 – Seeds of Understanding – This is similar to the other two, but it is more of a reliance on planting a seed of truth and hoping that it grows at a later date.

These are all good goals. They are all very similar to each other in that they seek to increase understanding of the issue in a different way.

These are not my goals.

You see, my main goal does not focus directly on increasing understanding.

Understanding the Truth

Understanding the truth about abortion is an important element in becoming pro-life. This truth is really very simple, rational and straight forward. However, if you have ever had a conversation about abortion then you probably identify with this quote:

“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.” – Sir Winston Churchill

Depending on how your conversations went, this quote may make you laugh or cry! Either way, I’m sure you recognize the fact that many people seem to be immune to rational understanding of abortion.

If that is truly the case, which it certainly has been in my experience, then why do we focus almost entirely on rational understanding as our end for an abortion conversation?

But isn’t this what we normally do? Logic, logic, logic!

Science seems to back up my experience. Looking at psychology and even neuroscience, it appears that we (humans in general) tend to be much less rational than we think we are.

It turns out that most people make many decisions first through emotion and then they justify it with their reason (rationalize). They usually do this without even realizing it.

This is very important to know when talking with someone about abortion.

My Goal

So, given the above discussion, what are my goals?

If people tend to make decisions emotionally and then rationalize them, then it is important to find what emotions are keeping them from being open to the truth. Otherwise, the truth falls on deaf ears no matter how good your arguments are.

Therefore, my main goal is to determine the emotional roadblocks that the other person has through calmly asking questions.

It may shock you, but this has very little to do with the truth about abortion or educating people on the facts. (that comes later) It’s important to be able to determine what emotions guide someone in being pro-choice before you start throwing facts, stats or clever arguments at them.

Don’t get me wrong, the truth is very important. You need to know your stuff. It’s just that emotional roadblocks must first be removed before someone is open to the truth.

I find that these roadblocks tend to come in a few general categories. I will talk about these categories and how to address them in the next post.

Your thoughts?

For now, what are some emotional roadblocks that you have encountered in your conversations about abortion? Please leave a comment below!

This post is from a series entitled “Talk About It.” This series is about how to spread the pro-life message through your personal relationships. 

Sign-up HERE to get articles in this series delivered to your inbox.