Wheeler: If we arbitrarily choose as a society
that that person,
just because of their stage of development,
is somehow less worthy of the protection of our state,
the protection that we all enjoy, then how else,
who else could we apply that same thing to?
What other demographic could we label as lesser than,
not worthy of the protections that we enjoy?
Wheeler: I talk to a lot of my friends.
Pretty much all my friends are liberal about abortion.
So we get into a lot of debates about that.
And they always shut me down because I'm a Christian,
pretty active Christian.
So they never like to listen to me
because they say that no matter what,
I'm going to come at it from a Christian view,
and they're not Christian,
so they're not willing to listen to me.
I just wanted your advice on that.
How should I go about that?
Wheeler: Yeah, that's a great question, too.
And it's always good, actually, to know the audience
and the views of your audience, the life philosophy,
or the religion of the person that you're talking to.
Because one argument will work on one person
that wouldn't work on another person
if they don't share your viewpoint.
The good thing about the pro-life argument
is that it doesn't have to have
anything to do with religion.
The argument against abortion,
or the argument in favor of life,
can strictly and solely be a scientific argument.
So I always say that there are two questions
that you want to ask when you are debating abortion.
And those of us who are pro-life,
I think a lot of times have all this data
and all this information, all these talking points.
And at least for me, I'll just speak for myself here.
Sometimes it's difficult not to drop these all
in a bomb of information on them, because you think,
"Oh, this will change their mind
if they only knew all of this stuff."
But actually what I've found to be more effective
is simply to ask two questions.
First of all, to say, "Scientifically, not religiously,
scientifically, when does a human life begin?"
And maybe they'll have to think about that.
People don't change their minds immediately,
but there's a very interesting scientific study,
or survey I should say,
that was done by a PhD student
at the University of Chicago.
His name is Steve Jacobs.
He actually did, as part of his doctoral thesis,
he did a survey in which he asked people,
"Who do you think is the authoritative source
to determine when a human life begins?"
And the majority of people said not a religious figure,
but they said academic biologists
are the authoritative source on when a human life begins.
And so he did a second scientific survey
of academic biologists, not just in our country,
but all around the world.
And he asked them, "At what moment does a human life begin?"
And 95% of academic biologists
said a human life begins at the moment of conception.
And the other five said things like,
"Are you an f-ing Christian?"
"Is this a Trump question?"
Clearly they were putting their science first.
So if you present the scientific argument
about when a human life begins
after you ask them the question first,
and then once you've established with them
when a human life begins, then you say,
"Then what right do we have to end that life?"
If we arbitrarily choose as a society that that person,
just because of their stage of development,
is somehow less worthy of the protection of our state,
the protection that we all enjoy, then how else,
who else could we apply that same thing to?
What other demographic could we label as lesser than,
not worthy of the protections that we enjoy?
And you have to remember
that going back to the first part of his survey,
23% of people who identify as pro-choice
don't believe that life begins at conception.
And over 80%, I think it's 83%,
think that if the knowledge of when a human life begins
were to be more widely known,
then people's opinions would change on abortion.
And so that in and of itself
is an almost unbeatable strategy.
There's also emotion that I would add in here
because abortion is an emotional topic for anybody.
I think we all know someone who has had an abortion.
Maybe it's a friend, maybe it's a co-worker,
maybe it's just a classmate.
We all know somebody who's been through this.
And we know that oftentimes
women feel coerced into having abortions.
Oftentimes women feel pressure from their partners.
Oftentimes women feel hopeless,
and this is not something
that we as conservatives should ignore.
Like I said, I gave birth to my daughter
nine months ago, and pregnancy was extremely difficult.
And I say that as someone who is in a loving, stable,
happy marriage, and I'm 32 years old.
So when we're talking about young women
who are facing unexpected pregnancies,
and they don't have the advantages that I have,
a husband and a family and the financial means,
this is something that we certainly should acknowledge.
And we as a pro-life movement should do our best
to support women, meeting them where they are, saying,
"I hear what you're going through.
I hear your fear.
I know physically what you're going through is difficult.
I know your life is going to change."
But we as conservatives should say, "But you can do it.
You're a woman.
You can do both.
Yes, your life is going to change,
but there is not one moment that you will regret
having that baby.
But if you abort that baby,
you will regret that the rest of your life."