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What to Say When 2: Book Review

Thursday, 19 September, 2024

Shawn D. Carney and Steve Karlen have written another classic pro-life apologetics book, helping pro-lifers discuss, clarify and question abortion in a post-Roe hostile culture.

The book is a sequel to a national bestseller and a proven guide of how to discuss abortion in a new legal landscape. The book includes great talking points at the end of each chapter to help pro-lifers reason and debate more thoroughly and convincingly.

The book starts reminiscing with personal testimonies about the day of the epic overturning of Roe vs Wade with media interviews and who was and was not ready. Grassroots pregnancy resource centres and state legislators were ready for the death of Roe but abortion activists, media and politicians were not. Roe vs Wade was the abortion industry’s ultimate cheat code, preventing Americans protect unborn babies at any level. Roe was created out of thin air because the Constitution does not say anything about abortion. Even Ruth Bader Ginsburg had the intellectual honesty to admit Roe’s reasoning was flawed from the start. 

Carney and Karlen highlight how in post-Roe America five new abortion myths have emerged. The first myth is that pro-life laws force women to travel for abortion. Pro-life protections do actually save lives because women don’t actually need to have abortions. The second myth is that overturning Roe is a stepping stone to banning interracial marriage. Nobody wants to ban interracial marriage, including Justice Clarence Thomas who is in an interracial marriage. The third myth is that protecting babies is a form of slavery. It is outrageous to compare slavery to the bond between a mother and child. The fourth myth is that God supports abortion. Pro-abortion pastors are usually progressive activists with teachings that have no relationship with Christianity. The fifth myth is that nobody survives abortion. Babies do survive abortion and are a reminder that the world is so much poorer from the millions of abortions worldwide. 

Carney and Karlen give invaluable advice about how to talk about the hardest of hard cases of abortion. Abortion perpetuates abuse because it enables abusers. The choice of an abortion often becomes an obligation to abort and abortion doesn’t help or heal women in difficult circumstances. Abortion activists assume that abortion will solve rape, incest or abuse and pro-lifers need to question that assumption. 

Pro-lifers are often accused about not caring about born children. Carney humorously casts this myth aside by showing that people who want to kill people can’t claim they care more than people who don’t want to kill people. Nobody is more alone and vulnerable than an unborn baby. There is no need to pit vulnerable groups against each other, we can love them all. 

The authors show the long history of trying to codify extreme abortion legislation in America such as the Freedom of Choice Act. Only 6 countries in the world had an abortion law as extreme as Roe, such as China and North Korea, there is no reason to bring it back. Proposals to codify Roe are usually far more extreme than Roe. Real progress is about respecting the lives of all human beings whether born or unborn. 

One chapter is dedicated to what abortion advocates said in their own words after Roe. They didn’t address science or legal proceedings, most reactions were extreme, vulgar or discriminatory and calls for violence were unacceptable. Retail pharmacies have been allowed to distribute abortion pills by the FDA. Mifepristone and misoprostol do have legitimate uses for non pregnancy related conditions like Cushing syndrome and rheumatoid ahtritis which means that pro-lifers are not trying to ban the drugs. It is important to recognize chemical abortions are messy, painful and dangerous, flooding communities with abortion pills is a recipe for bedlam and pill induced abortions can be reversed with abortion pill reversal. 

Some people think men can get abortions. Men cannot get pregnant, never have and never will. The authors show how abortion and transgender ideology collide. But there are only two sexes, you cannot change from one to another, and to claim men can get pregnant is insulting to all women. 

Some politicians have been reluctant or embarrassed in the post-Roe era. Karlen and Carney cover what to say when you’re told pro-life protections for unborn children will lead to electoral failure because the backlash to overturning Roe vs Wade won’t last, compromise means lost lives and voters will support pro-life candidates as long as they govern effectively. 

Some people claim that abortion bans kill women. But women are not dying after having unsafe back alley abortions. Abortion is never needed to save a woman’s life and abortion advocates can’t point to a single woman who died as a result of an abortion ban. 

A whole chapter is dedicated to the issue of abortion and rape, one of the hardest and most emotional parts of the abortion debate. Our human dignity is not determined by the circumstances of our conception. No child should be devalued because of the sins of the father. When abortion and rape come up, it is important to emphasize the rapist should go to prison and that abortion does not remove rape, it adds to the pain. The abortion will not remove the pain of the rape. 

Overall, what to say when 2 is another brilliant book on pro-life apologetics, wonderfully written, convincingly argued with great stories, excellent readability, go and buy it immediately to help discuss and argue about abortion with conviction and clarity.

Find it in Amazon

Soon, it will be translated into other languages. Stay tuned.

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