Talking About Choice
Personalize your pro-choice beliefs. Many times we talk about reproductive rights in the abstract. If you are able to bring the issues to a personal level, you may be able to better connect with your audience and remind them that these issues effect real people’s personal lives. Share why you are pro-choice or why you are choosing to volunteer with NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin. Ask your audience to do the same. Talk about values. When we talk about reproductive choice we focus on values rather than specific facts or stories. Values define us as a community and a culture. What do we value for our community? Personal Freedom Abortion should be legal, safe and rare. Banning abortion would not decrease the need for abortion; instead abortion would become more difficult and dangerous for women. We value Supreme Court judges and politicians who support Roe. Privacy Privacy is a fundamental American values, and that value includes private medical decision, such as the right to choose. Politicians should not interfere with our private medical decisions. Family planning is a decision a woman should make with her doctor and her family. We trust women to make private medical decisions, free from government interference. Prevention First There is common ground. We should all support commonsense ways to prevent unintended pregnancy and reduce the need for abortion including access to contraception, emergency contraception and comprehensive age-appropriate sex education. Women’s Health We believe that women should have a broad range of choices, including effective family planning, healthy childbearing, adoption and legal safe abortion. Access to a broad range of reproductive health options, improves women’s health and lives. Restricting these choices can have devastating consequences for women. Safeguarding women’s health is fundamental to the wellbeing and equality to women. Acknowledge the complexity of the issue. Reproductive health issues are incredibly personal and private. Some of the issues we talk about are incredibly complex because they deal with and some times challenge values and religious beliefs. Thoughtful people of good conscience can and do disagree. Acknowledge that these issues are complex and what one person chooses may not be the right choice for another person. However, we want all choices to be available to everyone so women can make the right choice for themselves and their family. Try to find common ground. Remember, there are some people who are “mixed choice” or part of the “muddled middle.” People may not agree with you on abortion rights issues but we can all agree about increasing access to methods to prevent unintended pregnancies and the need for abortion such as contraception, emergency contraception and comprehensive sexuality education.
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